the publishers were attacking amazon. Apple actually colluded with the publishes to break amazon and use set prices (see price fixing) and more all ebooks to the istore.
There is merit to the case. I bet the people who are in that department of the doj are the parked lawyers who are not given plumb assignments of protecting black pathers or attacking republicans or “investigating” those who expose voter fraud.
Who, exactly, sets the price for Kindle-edition books on Amazon? I always thought it was the publisher (based upon a certain amount the publisher is to receive for each purchase). Much like traditional print books - publishers have “suggested prices”, but they sell to booksellers at a certain price - the bookseller then sells at a particular mark-up.
What I have found - that isn’t always the case now. For some retailers, it is practically on a consignment arrangement.
But back to eBooks - I thought the eBook arrangement was similar - publisher x hypothetically expects say $5 per copy of the Kindle (or iBooks) edition... expecting Amazon (or Apple) to set price accordingly.
Now I read that pricing may be more like the app stores - the eSeller gets a flat percentage of revenues generated by a particular title. Thus the seller has more control over the price than the publisher (and writer).
So how did Apple collude with the publishers? Apple has no control over Amazon or how they do business. Apple can only make their own deals with publishers and allow the market to sort things out.
Unless I am missing something.