Apple hasn’t had much success convincing federal judges
that there was no antitrust violation when it came up with the agency pricing
model for e-books with five major publishers. While the publishers decided to
settle instead of taking on the government, Apple fought and has lost at
practically every turn.
With the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, the
American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble, Authors United, and the
Authors Guild have chimed in on Apple’s behalf, asking the court to review the
case in a friend-of-the-court brief.
The document contends that instead of stifling competition, Apple’s entry into
the market increased competition.
The brief lays much of the blame on Amazon for the anticompetitive
atmosphere that existed before Apple got into the game. It also points to the
2014 dispute between Amazon and Hachette over e-book pricing as an example of
punitive measures taken by Amazon against a publisher, according to a report in Shelf Awareness.
“We authors feel strongly that diversity, competition,
and the free flow of ideas are key to a healthy marketplace of books,” Douglas
Preston, founder of Authors United, wrote in the friend-of-the-court brief.
“The numbers unequivocally show that Apple’s entry into the e-book market
increased competition and gave authors and publishers greater choice in how
content was delivered to the reading public.”
