Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever

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If U.S. District Judge Denise Cote needed a reminder that she backed the bully in the 2013 e-book antitrust ruling that made her infamous on the Internet, Apple and Hachette on Tuesday engineered a doozy.

On Monday, Judge Cote received from Apple and 30 states attorneys general the terms of the deal they’ve cut – presumably a dollar amount in millions — to settle the separate civil case that rode like a room full of expensive suits on Cote’s decision. Apple has promised to take its appeal to the Supreme Court, if necessary. (See The big ‘if’ in Apple’s e-book settlement.)

A few hours after the deal was made public, a reporter with good connections with Apple PR posted a screen shot of Hachette titles being discounted on Apple’s iTunes bookstore. “Apple is happy,” Peter Kafka wrote on Re/Code, in a widely retweeted headline, “to sell you the Hachette books Amazon won’t stock.”

For the rest of the story, go to Fortune.com.