On December 23, well ahead of the deadline, the Department of Justice filed its 33-page brief in opposition to Apple’s petition asking the Supreme Court the hear an appeal of their ebook antitrust case. The focus of the government’s rebuttal is to argue that finding Apple guilty on a per se basis, rather than applying the rule of reason, was applied correctly under antitrust law because Apple was found to have participated in a horizontal conspiracy with the publishers. They say Apple’s argument to use the rule of reason incorrectly posits that their publisher agreements were “vertical” contracts, contrary to the prior […]
Legal
2015: The Year in Lawsuits
For years now the future of publishing has been driven by litigation as much as innovation. While 2015 leaves a couple of key cases right near the edge of resolution — the biggest question is whether the Supreme Court will agree to hear Apple’s appeal of the ebook antitrust ruling (the odds of the Court taking any case are very low, though legal experts guess that if the justices take the case, they are likely to find for Apple) — we may be coming to the end of the “digital dispute decade,” at least in the US. But in time-warped Europe, market concentration […]
Barnes & Noble, ABA, and Authors Guild File Brief Asking Supreme Court to Hear Apple’s Appeal
Barnes & Noble and the American Booksellers Association joined with the Authors Guild and Authors United in a friend of the court brief asking the Supreme Court to hear Apple’s appeal of the ebook pricing case. Consistent with Apple’s own brief, the parties assert that the Second Circuit should have used the rule of reason to evaluate Apple’s conduct in launching the iBooks Store rather than judging it per se unlawful. And they assert that under a rule of reason, the market for ebooks became more competitive: “Following Apple’s entry into the market and the adoption of the agency model, competition within the […]
Supreme Court Extends Apple Appeal Deadline — And Agrees to Outside Briefs
Following the filing of Apple’s brief late last month asking the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the ebook pricing case, the clock had been ticking on the optional filing of a response from the Department of Justice. According to the newly updated court docket, the deadline for “all respondents” was extended by about a month, until January 4, 2016. In addition, the court indicated last week that counsel for both Apple and the states consented to the filing of amicus briefs “in support of either party or of neither party,” by the same deadline.
Germany Antitrust Office Investigates Audible and iTunes Exclusive Sales Agreement
Following a complaint lodged by Germany’s Publishers and Booksellers Association in September, the country’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) announced on Monday that it “has initiated administrative proceedings against the Amazon subsidiary Audible.com and Apple Computer Inc,” regarding their “long-term agreement” that has Audible as the exclusive supplier of audiobooks to the iTunes Store. President of the Federal Cartel Office Andreas Mundt says in the statement: “Both companies hold a strong position in the market for digital audiobooks in Germany. We therefore see ourselves obliged to examine more closely the agreement between these two competitors. The audiobook publishers need to have sufficient alternative channels for […]
In Supreme Court Filing, Apple Claims Appeals Court Decision “Will Harm Competition And The National Economy”
Per the prescribed deadline, Apple filed its petition for a writ of certoriari with the Supreme Court late Wednesday, asking it to review the 2-1 decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the verdict finding Apple guilty of antitrust violations in launching the iBooks Store. Though the docket does not reflect the updated filing, we were able to obtain the 297-page brief, which expands upon the 7-page summary Apple filed with the court last month, with 35 pages of arguments, and many more pages of appendices. (Note this story is based a quick read of that filing.) Apple’s formal […]