Company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), is required to pay $450 million to millions of consumers and 30 US states after agreeing in 2014 to plead guilty in a lawsuit in which it was accused of anti-competitive practices in the sale of e- books.
More precisely, in 2010, under the guidance of Steve Jobs, Apple convinced 5 of the largest publishers in the US to enter into an agreement to set the prices of e-books sold on the Internet, the idea being to undermine Amazon, the leader of the market in that segment then, the prices of digital books increasing by 40% as a result.
The agreement between Apple and the 5 publishing houses was proven to be illegal, Apple was sued by consumers and 30 American states, and to end the process it agreed to pay damages of 450 million dollars, but then he appealed his own decision in court.
Today, the Supreme Court of Justice in the USA rejected the last appeal made by Apple's lawyers, so that in the end those from Cupertino will be forced to pay the amount of 450 million dollars that they agreed to from the very beginning to pay it.
Apple Inc. must pay $450 million to end an antitrust suit after the US Supreme Court refused to question a finding that the company orchestrated a scheme to raise the prices for electronic books.
The sum of 450 million dollars is composed of: 400 million dollars representing compensations to be paid to consumers, 20 million dollars in compensation for the 30 states that joined the consumers and 20 million dollars in court costs .
