Apple Agrees To Stop eBook Price Fixing In Europe

[jpeyton]

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3382457

Unlike a similar case in the US where Apple is taking the US DOJ to trial, Apple is apparently ready to admit their wrongdoing and settle in Europe.

Apple loses...consumers win?

 

[cl-scott]

To be fair, I'd say it's a little inaccurate to say that they were price fixing. What they were doing was basically telling publishers that if they want to gouge customers, they are only too happy to help, so long as they get their 30% cut. Apple itself wasn't setting any kind of price floor, they were just perfectly willing to let the publishers set one if they so chose. Now, I would definitely say they were wholly complicit, and I might even go so far as to say Apple essentially instigated the practice, so they should be nailed to the wall for it... But they weren't price fixing themselves.

 

[WelshBloke]

Competition commission doesn't eff around in Europe.

 

[cl-scott]

Competition commission doesn't eff around in Europe.

Not to get too political with this, but it does strike me as a kind of sad irony that Europe is often demonized in the US as being socialist, yet Europe often holds to the principles of capitalism far better than the US, the self-proclaimed bastion of free enterprise and unvarnished capitalism.

In the US, the DOJ going after Apple for allowing companies to gouge customers is seen as some kind of anti-business move, and my guess is that in Europe it will be seen for exactly what it is, a consumer protection move.

My apologizes in advance if there are some who can't see this as the simple observation it is and attempt to devolve the discussion into some kind of debate over US politics or whatever else.