COUGH IT UP

Apple May Pay $450M for E-Book Suit

Paying up for price-fixing.

Apple may end up paying $450 million to settle a suit accusing the tech giant of price-fixing e-books. Court papers filed Wednesday reveal that Apple could end up paying $400 million for a consumer compensation fund, $20 million to settle state cases, and $30 million to a class counsel. The settlement stems from a 2012 federal suit in which Apple and five publishers—Macmillan, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster—were accused of an “illegal conspiracy” to fix the prices of e-books. State suits were filed at the same time. Apple has appealed a ruling that found the company guilty of these charges. If Apple’s case is re-tried and it is ultimately found not liable, the company could end up paying nothing at all. However, that is unlikely considering the book publishers have already had to pay $166 million to settle.