{"id":88363,"date":"1999-12-31T00:51:00","date_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartoffice.com.au\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/"},"modified":"1999-12-31T00:51:00","modified_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:51:00","slug":"apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple E-book Row To Hit OZ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

E-Book prices may head south as Apple are accused of price fixing with publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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And after being accused of price fixing electronic books by the US government this week, the row may have implications for Aussie consumers if Apple are found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour. <\/p>\n

The Australian consumer watchdog, ACCC, said today that it is “aware of the developments in other jurisdictions concerning e-book publishing and pricing” and called on OZ retailers to raise any concerns they have with them. <\/p>\n

Cupertino has been formally accused of colluding with five book publishers just prior to the launch of its iPad back in 2010, including Harper Collins (owned by News Corp), Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS) Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Macmillan and Penguin, to fix the price of e-book titles.<\/p>\n

Read: Apple Deny Price Fixing (Accuse “Monopolistic” Amazon Instead)<\/a><\/p>\n

The case was formally filed against Apple and publishers on Wednesday at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n

And now it look like three out of five publishers, including Rupert Murdoch’s Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster, have agreed to settle the case with the US Department of Justice, reports Reuters<\/a>, meaning e-book prices could fall significantly very soon – to the joy of readers globally (and Amazon too). <\/p>\n

Steve Jobs is thought to have developed the “agency model” <\/a>which prevented rival retailers from selling ebooks at a lower price. <\/p>\n

Why? <\/p>\n

To prevent rival Amazon flogging cheap e-books titles for its Kindle readers, who used sell them for as little as $0.99c. The iPad maker took a 30% cut on every e-book sold so it was in their interests to keep prices as high as possible, in order to fatten profits.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the agreement in 2010 prices rose by $2-$3 in a matter of days, US authorities believe. <\/p>\n

Apple currently flogs around 700,000 titles in its iBook store which can be viewed on it iPhone, iPad or iPod. Steve Jobs’ book by Walter Isaacson sells at US$14.99, while other books titles can cost as much as $24.99. <\/p>\n

When asked by SmartHouse whether Aussie e-book consumers may be entitled to refunds if Apple is found guilty of price fixing, the ACCC spokesperson refused to comment.<\/p>\n

However, the watchdog previously warned “impediments to emerging competition involving online traders is an area of priority” for the ACCC.  <\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

“Competition concerns may arise [for the ACCC] where traders seek to restrict the discounting of products by way of restrictive arrangements with suppliers.” <\/p>\n

However, it is not certain if the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission could prosecute Apple here, with the spokesperson adding “whether competition concerns arise depends on the circumstances.”<\/p>\n

However, it wouldn’t be the first time the ACCC has gone after Apple, with it finding the iPad 4G advertisment “misleading”<\/a> for Aussie consumers just this month and ordering Cupertino to give consumers a full refund. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E-Book prices may head south as Apple are accused of price fixing with publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":93483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-retail","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nApple E-book Row To Hit OZ? - Smart Office<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apple E-book Row To Hit OZ? - Smart Office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"E-Book prices may head south as Apple are accused of price fixing with publishers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1999-12-30T13:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oonagh Reidy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oonagh Reidy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Oonagh Reidy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/#\/schema\/person\/15e890b46095d075b43fe7ecb12341ae\"},\"headline\":\"Apple E-book Row To Hit OZ?\",\"datePublished\":\"1999-12-30T13:51:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Archive\",\"Retail\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/apple-e-book-row-to-hit-oz\/\",\"name\":\"Apple E-book Row To Hit OZ? 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