The Justice Department and Macmillan have reached a settlement
over the antitrust lawsuit relating to e-book pricing, which means
book retailers will be able to discount the digital titles of all
major publishers in the U.S.
Macmillan is the last of five major publishers targeted in a
Justice Department antitrust lawsuit last year to settle. Three
publishers settled in April last year, while a fourth, Pearson
PLC's (PSO, PSON.LN) Penguin Group (USA), settled in December.
Penguin settled in advance of its planned merger with Bertelsmann
SE & Co.'s Random House publishing unit expected to be
completed later this year.
The agreement Friday leaves Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the only
remaining defendant outstanding in the government's lawsuit. A
spokeswoman for Apple declined comment.
The suit alleged the publishers and Apple colluded to raise
e-book prices at a time when Amazon.com Inc. was selling new
digital best sellers for only $9.99. The government suit noted that
e-book best-seller prices subsequently rose to $12.99 and $14.99
following the alleged collusion.
The publishers and Apple denied the allegations.
Terms of Friday's settlement, which must be approved by a court,
call for Macmillan to allow e-book retailers to discount its titles
within three business days of agreeing to the settlement, even if
it hasn't struck new contracts with those retailers. That
discounting will be in place for 23 months starting from Dec. 18,
2012, the day on which Penguin settled.
In a statement addressed to authors, illustrators and agents,
John Sargent, chief executive of Macmillan, wrote that he settled
"because the potential penalties became too high to risk even the
possibility of an unfavorable outcome."
Mr. Sargent, who noted in his statement that he continued to
believe that Macmillan hadn't done anything wrong, said that the
Penguin settlement was a turning point. He also said that the
settlement doesn't include an admission of guilt. Macmillan is a
unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at
Jeffrey.Trachtenberg@wsj.com
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