Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Apple Conspired To Raise E-Book Prices

(RTTNews) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Apple Inc (AAPL) colluded with publishers to raise prices of e-books.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote, agreed with a judge's ruling two years ago that Apple violated federal antitrust law by conspiring with publishers to fix e-book prices.

The ruling brings consumers one step closer to a proposed $450 million settlement with Apple for its role in the e-book price-fixing scheme with five of the nation's largest publishing companies.

The class of consumers alleged that Apple illegally colluded to manipulate the e-book market by artificially raising the price of e-books, lowering competition and charging consumers higher prices.

The five publishers with whom Apple colluded are Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group Inc, News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Penguin Group Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan.

In July 2013, after a trial involving the Department of Justice and state attorneys general, Judge Cote of the District Court for the Southern District of New York found Apple guilty of violating both federal and state antitrust laws.

Tuesday's ruling by the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals follows Apple's disputing the earlier judgment, even as all the publishers had had settled their cases.

AAPL is trading at $125.75, up $1.22 or 0.98%, on a volume of 28 million shares on the Nasdaq.