Apple has been hit with damages claim of worth 840 million dollars for forming a coalition with publishing companies to fix e-book pricing.
Steve Berman, an attorney leading the class action lawsuit on behalf of eBook customers in 33 states, filed the lawsuit on Friday in New York accusing Apple of owing its American eBook customers a minimum of 231 million dollars in damages for allegedly raising the eBook prices for its own benefit.
The amount claimed is 0.5 percent of the $158.8 billion in cash that the iPad maker reported that it had at the end of 2013. The advocate used the evidence presented during the course of trial of the US Justice Department’s successful antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2013.
Berman even pointed out in his claim that one of his witness, a Stanford economist, estimated that the increase in eBook price resulted in 18.1 percent increase in sales, or a total $280 million worth of sales. Considering this Berman requested the judge to force Apple to pay triple this amount so that the amount can be equally divided between the various states and consumers suing Apple for damages.
If the judge agrees to Berman’s request, the damages claim would be equal to 0.5 percent of the cash on hand Apple reported at the end of last year.
Apple is yet to comment on the latest filing but it is for sure the California based company will be appealing the original ruling in the case.
[Source: Bloomberg]
