Macmillan U.S. Settles Lawsuit Over E-Book Prices

The U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that it has reached a settlement with Macmillan in a lawsuit over alleged price fixing of electronic books. Macmillan was the last of the big publishing houses to pay last spring government.This, Macmillan Chief Executive Officer John Sargent has vowed to fight the case. Now in a note to authors, illustrators, agents and published on the company website, Sargent explains why he would turn. "There are two reasons we do not live far into the future," he wrote. "First, the settlement calls for a discount rate of e-books that we consider harmful to the industry. We feel that if only three major six publishers are required to discount and we stand firm, these problems can be prevented. But when Random House Penguin agrees to be bound by the settlement, it became clear that all five of the six other major publishers will allow full commission agent to be used as a discount, and Macmillan stood alone worth the price of the entire body will have no impact on the overall market. And in addition, your book and our prices are detrimental to the business for two years. "" The second reason is simple, "he added. "I have old-fashioned belief that you do not have to live if you have done nothing wrong. Apparently, the ancient reality. "The government has touted the settlement as a further success for consumer e-book. "According to the complaint, the five publishers and Apple (AAPL) fun competition between selling e-book e-book reduced price and the retail profit margins by selling books at the thought they were too low," the FBI said in a statement. "To meet the concerns, the department said the company is working to raise the retail price of e-books and eliminate price competition, significant price increases paid by consumers. Before the company started their conspiracy, retailers used to sell e-book versions of new releases and bestsellers for, as described by one of the CEOs of the issuer, the price point 'Merciful $ 9.99. "As a result of the conspiracy, the consumer is usually forced to pay $ 12.99, $ 14.99 or more for the most sought after e-books, the department said. "Macmillan discount restrictions will stop and not being able to build such new restrictions until December 2014, the government said in its reversal of release.Macmillan leave Apple as a named defendant in this case was the end of fighting the charges. Previously, Apple has denied government allegations that it conspired with publishers to fix the price of e-books in an attempt to undermine Amazon.com 's (AMZN) dominant position in the market.