As expected, Apple has filed an appeal of an appellate court ruling that upheld a decision finding that the iPhone maker had illegally colluded with five publishers to set e-book prices.
Apple s filing, more than 200 pages long, relays Apple s perspective as it negotiated e-book pricing in advance of the 2010 introduction of the iPad and iBookstore.
The Justice Department sued the company for antitrust violations and in 2013, a judge ruled that Apple was liable for engaging in a price-setting conspiracy. The judge appointed an outside antitrust monitor over the company, something Apple has bristled at ever since, as I have written.
If the June decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is upheld, Apple will be forced to pay consumers $450 million under a settlement with 33 states in a civil case, Reuters reports.
The Second Circuit s decision will harm competition and the national economy, Apple says in the filing.
Apple released a statement to the press restating its position that it did nothing wrong:
When Apple launched the iBooks Store in 2010, we brought choice to consumers and innovation to ebooks. We have always acted in the best interest of customers and content creators of all sizes. We did nothing wrong, and stand by our principles. At this point, our only recourse is to take this to the Supreme Court.
Is there any downside for Apple to pursue this case to the bitter end? Most companies, I would wager, would have settled a long time ago mostly to be able to move on.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, in Fortune, writes that Apple and CEO Tim Cook have little to lose by pursuing the issue:
With its war chest of cash, Apple can afford to wage quixotic fights. Especially if they are fights Steve Jobs started. Especially if a large segment of its customer base is inclined to see the case its way.
This is Apple thinking different to the bitter end.
Photo: Apple s new iBooks 2 app is demonstrated for the media on an iPad at an event in the Guggenheim Museum in New York on January 19, 2012. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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