Ebook Purchasers to Receive $400M from Apple in Price-Fixing Settlement

Consumers who purchased ebooks from Apple will on Tuesday start receiving a combined $400 million as part of a legal settlement in a class-action suit over price-fixing.

The $400 million is an additional settlement that follows the Supreme Court’s denial of an appeal from Apple in an antitrust lawsuit against the tech company, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster. Attorneys representing the consumers argued that Apple inflated ebook prices 30 to 50% and participated in anticompetitive price-fixing with the publishing companies.

Ebook purchasers will receive $6.93 for every ebook that was a New York Times bestseller and $1.57 for other ebooks, according to a press release from law firm Hagens Berman.

To be eligible, consumers had to have purchased a book from one of the identified publishing companies between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012, 9to5Mac reported.