Apple Agrees To Damages It May Not Have To Pay

Apple has reached a settlement on the damages owed to consumers for orchestrating a scheme to drive up the prices of digital books. Terms of the agreement were not revealed, but may be made public when further documents are filed this month. An expert witness estimated that the higher prices for electronic books cost buyers an additional $280 million. In 2013 a California court ruled that Apple colluded with major publishers to raise prices. Apple has appealed the ruling, claiming that it was helping publishers compete by breaking Amazon’s virtual monopoly on e-book sales. If the appeal is successful the damages agreement is moot.