Apple to pay $450 million after e-book price agreements

The US Supreme Court has decided not to hear Apple’s appeal. This brings into effect an earlier settlement, which stipulated that Apple would pay 450 million dollars, converted 410 million euros, if an appeal were unsuccessful.

If Apple had been found innocent by the US Supreme Court, the company would only have had to pay $50 million in attorney’s fees under a clause included in the settlement proposal. However, there was only a small chance that this would happen.

In June 2015, a lower court had already found Apple guilty on appeal, against this judgment the renewed appeal to the highest US court. Reuters reports that the decision not to hear the case has the effect of upholding the 2015 verdict. There is no mention of why the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case.

The case arose after Apple tried to make agreements with a number of publishers with a standard contract. Part of the agreement was that the publishers could determine the prices of e-books themselves via an ‘agency’ model, with Apple receiving 30 percent of the price. This strategy aimed to challenge Amazon’s monopoly in the e-book market. However, according to the US Department of Justice, these behaviors were price-fixing and also caused e-book prices to rise.

Apple must pay the settlement amount to US consumers who have been harmed. Apple already reached a settlement with the European Commission in 2012.