Apple has received final court approval to settle a class-action lawsuit over claims that it harmed consumers by fixing the price of e-books, according to Reuters.
The settlement could have Apple paying $450 million $400 million to consumers and $50 million to lawyers but that's only so long as Apple's ongoing appeal of the federal ebook price-fixing verdict does not result in an overturned ruling, which previously found it guilty. In the event that the ruling is overturned, Apple will only owe $50 million to consumers and $20 million to lawyers.
During a hearing in Manhattan, US District Judge Denise Cote approved what she called a "highly unusual" accord. It calls for Apple to pay $400 million to as many as 23 million consumers if the company is unsuccessful in appealing a ruling that found it liable for antitrust violations.
The $400 million comes on top of earlier settlements with five publishers in the case, which provided $166 million for e-book purchasers.
Apple agreed to the settlement in June, ahead of a damages trial set for two months later in which attorneys general in 33 states and territories and lawyers for a class of consumers were expected to seek up to $840 million.
That accord calls for Apple to pay $400 million to consumers and $50 million to lawyers if Cote's findings are upheld on appeal, and nothing if the Cupertino, California-based company wins its appeal.
If the appeals court overturns Cote and returns the case to her, perhaps for a new trial, Apple would owe $50 million to consumers and $20 million to lawyers.
While the deal was unusual, Cote said she understood why the plaintiffs decided to go with it, given delay tactics by Apple.
Apple and the five publishers have been accused of colluding in a price-fixing scheme, in which they are said to have raised the prices of e-books well above the standard Amazon had established for the market. Apple is accused of conspiring with the publishers to raise the prices of e-books as early as 2009, in a scheme that would hurt Amazon's surging Kindle sales and open more room for the newly launched iPad to excel.
Apple alleges the publishers decided to raise the prices of e-book on their own, acting with their own interests in mind and without the influence of the iOS maker.
After Cote's previous ruling, Apple's top lawyer said that U.S. legal system hadn't established a precedent in which a company was found liable of antitrust violations for seeking a competitive edge when entering a market in which a single organization holds a monopoly.
"Plaintiffs do not cite a single analogous case, and there is none," the lawyer stated. "The district court's decision finding Apple per se liable under the antitrust laws was therefore reversible error."
