Apple Pays Back E-Book Buyers After Losing Price-fixing Lawsuit

(RTTNews) - e-book retailers began issuing Apple-funded credits to customer accounts. This follows Apple's (AAPL) agreement to pay $400 million in a settlement that ended an antitrust complaint that accused the company and five of the largest U.S. book publishers of working together to increase e-book prices.

The amount an individual consumer will receive from payment depends on the number and types of e-books they purchased from April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012. E-book consumers can get $6.93 for each New York Times bestseller and $1.57 for every other book purchased during that period.

Due to the large number of consumers affected, some consumers may not see credits in their accounts until Friday, June 24, 2016. All credits and checks are valid for one year and will expire on June 24, 2017. Account credits from a retailer can be used to purchase anything the retailer sells.

Hagens Berman litigated the case jointly with the United States Department of Justice and attorneys general from 33 U.S. states and territories.

Attorneys said the process is uniquely simple for consumers - credits will be automatically sent directly into the accounts of consumers at major book retailers, including Amazon.com Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., Kobo Inc. and Apple. Retailers will issue emails and put the credits in the accounts simultaneously.

The combined $400 million that will go to consumers follows the final stage in the lawsuit in which the Supreme Court denied appeal from Apple, bringing the consumer payback amount to more than twice the amount of losses suffered by the class of e-book purchasers.

The class of consumers alleged that Apple illegally colluded with a group of five publishing companies to manipulate the e-book market by artificially raising the price of e-books, lowering competition and charging consumers higher prices. According to attorneys, the anticompetitive price-fixing collusion between Apple and the publishers caused the price of e-books to increase 30 to 50 percent to $12.99 or $14.99 from Amazon's $9.99 price.