In April , the Department of Justice file anantitrust complaintagainst Apple and four major book publishers say that they colluded against Amazon by set prices . As The New Yorkerpoints out , that ’s hard to prove , but either way , their cooperation may have break Amazon ’s other monopoly on ebooks . This lawsuit could give Amazon its power back .
The US Department of Justice Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple ( Updating )
Back in 2010 when Apple was about to set in motion the iPad , newspaper publisher were very worried about Amazon . Since the launch of the Kindle in 2007 , Amazon had grown to command the entire ebooks market . certainly , publishers were making money off Amazon , but they were upset about Amazon ’s pricing scheme . You see , Amazon was buying ebooks from publisher at about $ 15 a man , but in an attempt to aid the Kindle catch on , the company was then selling the books at $ 10 . Big quite a little , ripe ? Well in the physical process , publisher were worried that Amazon ’s scheme was devaluing book . And because Amazon was the only game in town , there was nothing the newspaper publisher could do about it .
The result is that publisher actually made less money per Christian Bible in many cases , but that Amazon ’s efficient monopoly was break . Indeed , in 2012 , Amazon controls 60 - percent of the ebook market instead of the 90 percent share it agree in 2007 . The New Yorkerarticle argues that if it had n’t been for Apple ’s authority model romp , Amazon contender like Barnes and Noble would n’t have had a chance .
That ’s a well thing , correct ? Monopolies incline to be bad for consumers in the end . Well , fit in to the Justice , the record book publisher actually conspire to set prices while sorting out the details of the deal with Apple . There ’s enough grounds to this essence that three out of five of the publisher settled with the DoJ. These publishing house now ca n’t coif the bottom cost for their ebooks anymore because companies like Amazon can now discount everything but the publishing firm ’s commission . recollect , the whole point of switching to Apple ’s agency model was for publishers to retain control of their pricing . Now , if Apple and the two remaining publishers misplace their pending cases , Amazon could retrieve its death grip on the market once again — but at least the contest had some metre to found itself . [ The New Yorker(Subscription required ) ]
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