Apple and five large book publishers could be hit with a lawsuit over allegedly teaming up to raise the price of e-books, according a report Thursday.
The U.S. Justice Department has warned Apple, along with Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, Macmillan, and HarperCollins, that it plans to sue them for antitrust violations, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the inquiry.
The six companies allegedly colluded in 2010 to force Amazon to raise its discounted e-book prices.
Three of the book publishers -- HarperCollins, Hachette and Penguin -- declined to comment. Representatives for the Justice Department and the other companies named in the report did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
If these allegations are true, it completely justifies my decision to never again buy an iTunes or iBook from Apple. If the cost of these publishers getting in the ground floor on Apple's iPad bookstore was having to screw over Amazon's Kindle users like myself, then we have a serious problem on our hands, and I hope that Kindle e-book buyers like myself get the difference back, plus interest.
This sucks, Apple. Forget me buying any content from you in the future.
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