Apple could pay up to $840 million in antitrust claims as a punishment for being found guilty of colluding with publishers to fix the prices of eBooks.
In June, U.S. district judge Denise Cote found Apple guilty of the antitrust claims filed by the U.S. Justice Department. She also determined that 33 states were eligible to join in the suit. Bloomberg has the story:
State attorneys general and consumers who sued the world’s most valuable technology company over its e-book pricing are seeking $280 million in damages and want that amount tripled, a lawyer for them said in a filing yesterday with the federal judge in Manhattan who presided over the U.S. case against Apple. The plaintiffs say they’re entitled to triple damages under antitrust law because the U.S. had already “conclusively proven” at a trial last year that Apple orchestrated a conspiracy to fix prices. The amount sought is 0.5 percent of the $158.8 billion in cash that the Cupertino, California-based company reported that it had as of the end of 2013.
Apple is appealing the judgement.