Apple has conspired with several book publishers to increase the price of e-books that were sold on its iBooks Store.
As part of the settlement Apple was told to pay $450 million. Since then it has tried to appeal the settlement; however, Apple's appeal has been rejected by the US Supreme Court, so once again, Apple has been told to pay $450 million, except this time, it is final.
It is hard to see how Artists and writers are making money through Apple's solutions; it requires lots of volumes so only Apple gets a profit.
It has been reduced to marketing for future concert tours. In the old days artists and writers made money on selling traditional books and records.
The distribution through Apple's systems has seemingly reduced that income while Apple hardly can complain.
Normally the state takes the profit in these cases in the shape of fines etc but not so here:
- $400 million to be paid back to consumers
$20 million to various US States who sued originally
$30 million in legal fees