The publishers (Hachette Book Group, MacMillan, HarperCollins, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster) settled out of court, leaving Apple to face the wrath of Judge Denise Cote.
In her ruling, US District Court Judge Cote said...
"The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy. Without Apple's orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did in the spring of 2010."
Apple have released a statement since the ruling asserting their innocence - even though their co-conspiritors have already cut and run...
"Apple did not conspire to fix ebook pricing and we will continue to fight against these false accusations. When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. We've done nothing wrong and we will appeal the judge's decision."
Best headline (Christchurch Press) "Judge throws ebook at Apple"
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Story on techcrunch.com
More detail at guardian.co.uk
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