'Apple needed to launch a business, not a conspiracy,” Apple lead attorney Orin Snyder.
This was the response of one of the country’s top trial lawyers and litigators who also handled antitrust cases for major companies including Atari, CNN, Facebook, Home Box Office, NBC Universal, Sony, Starbucks, Time Warner, and Warner Music Group. This time, he is representing Apple Inc.
The case e-book trial case named United States of America v. Apple Inc. commenced Monday wherein DOJ presented all the evidences they have gathered to prove that Apple manipulated the e-book pricing and conspired with five major publishers to increase the prices.
Lawrence Buterman is the lead attorney representing DOJ for this case against the iPhone maker. According to him, Apple served as facilitator during the meeting to come up with a fixed price for e-books-- up to prices of $12.99 and $14.99-- wherein the publishers will be giving the iPad maker a portion of their earnings as well as a contract that will allow Apple to sell e-books with a price lower than the major publishers’ price. Copies of emails between Apple and the publishers were used as evidences.
The conspiracy transpired when Amazon dropped the price of the e-book to $9.99.
A graph illustrating the e-book pricing trend for six months back in 2010 showed a significant increase on the prices of the e-books sold by the five major publishers. iBookstore, Apple’s own e-book store, didn’t change its price though.
DOJ released a powerpoint presentation of their evidences for the public to see. Click here for the copy.
Snyder rejected the evidences presented by the prosecution and called the presentation a“bizarre” application of antitrust laws. Apple wasn’t an established e-book seller so he couldn’t see the point of the company conspiring with the publishers. Amazon wasn’t considered a threat either.
“Apple needed to launch a business, not a conspiracy.” Snyder said “the interests of Apple and publishers were not aligned,” and that the publishers, which the government asserts were working together, “appeared entirely uncoordinated from [Cue’s] point of view.”
