The publishers settled. They admitted guilt. Collusion happened.
Beyind that, Apple's practices extended to iOS. All ebook vendors from then on had to take 30% cut of whatever price the publisher. Then apple forced all vendors trying to sell their wares on iOS to only sell through their merchant interface, with no price disparity allowed. And what is Apple's cut? 30%.
So any vendir trying to sell ebooks on iOS had to relinquish all their margins to Apple, pretty much locking all vendors out of the sales point.
Amazon is the only one that benefitted from this, ironically, since they were well established and did not need iOS sales to survive. All other competitors just withered away.
And the settlement of the publishers also doesn't incriminate Apple, IMHO. It was documented that the publishers communicated between themselves even before Apple appeared.
Not all conspiracies are enacted by secret cabals. Apple may have joined later, but three levels of federal court, plus settlement in a civil suit, have now shown us they were in fact guilty of conspiring.
I can't seem to find the terms of the settlement anywhere but they did pay the punitive settlement. If you believe you are innocent you fight, which is what Apple did.
These circular arguments only exist because the culprit in the case is Apple. Apple tried to fix prices by colluding with a cartel of book publishers instead compete in a free market. They have been found guilty of this by one court, the decision has been upheld by another court and the Supreme
Court has rejected there appeal. It then used its market power to force all competitors off iOS. They literally killed the ebook market.
Beyind that, Apple's practices extended to iOS. All ebook vendors from then on had to take 30% cut of whatever price the publisher. Then apple forced all vendors trying to sell their wares on iOS to only sell through their merchant interface, with no price disparity allowed. And what is Apple's cut? 30%.
So any vendir trying to sell ebooks on iOS had to relinquish all their margins to Apple, pretty much locking all vendors out of the sales point.
Amazon is the only one that benefitted from this, ironically, since they were well established and did not need iOS sales to survive. All other competitors just withered away.