A group of consumers have been given permission to bring an antitrust class action suit against Apple for allegedly conspiring with publishers to fix eBook prices has been granted permission to sue Apple.
Reuters has the story: “U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said the plaintiffs had ‘more than met their burden’ to allow them to sue as a group. She rejected Apple’s contentions that the claims were too different from each other, or that some plaintiffs were not harmed because some e-book prices fell. ‘This is a paradigmatic antitrust class action,’ wrote Cote, who has scheduled a trial later this year to determine damages, which could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In June, U.S. district judge Denise Cote found Apple guilty of colluding with publishers to fix the prices of eBooks in a case brought by the U.S. Justice Department. According to reports, Apple could pay up to $840 million in antitrust claims as a punishment for being found guilty. Apple has already begun dispensing refunds to consumers in select states.