Apple to Fight DOJ Alone as Macmillan Agrees to Settle E-Books Suit

Apple has been left to fight the Department of Justice alone as Macmillan has agreed to settlement over alleged e-Book price fixing. The DOJ has already settled with the other four publishers: Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette.

Under the proposed settlement agreement, Macmillan will immediately lift restrictions it has imposed on discounting and other promotions by e-book retailers and will be prohibited until December 2014 from entering into new agreements with similar restrictions. The proposed settlement agreement also will impose a strong antitrust compliance program on Macmillan, including requirements that it provide advance notification to the department of any e-book ventures it plans to undertake jointly with other publishers and regularly report to the department on any communications it has with other publishers. Also for five years, Macmillan will be forbidden from agreeing to any kind of most favored nation (MFN) provision that could undermine the effectiveness of the settlement.

Apple has been very vocal in opposing the Department of Justice's actions calling them "fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented."

“The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true,” an Apple spokesman previously told AllThingsD. “The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.”

Read More [via AllThingsD]