Antitrust Bulletin - April 2014

E-Book Consumers Win Class Certification Against Apple

On March 28, in In re: Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote (S.D.N.Y.) granted class certification to a group of consumers accusing Apple Inc. of colluding with five major publishers to fix e-book prices. As previously reported, the court ruled in July that Apple colluded with major publishers beginning in 2010 in an effort to raise digital book prices. Each of the five major publishers had reached settlements with the DOJ prior to the original proceedings and the instant suit was filed after Judge Cote's July ruling. In a follow-up ruling, Judge Cote granted plaintiffs' motion for class certification, as well as their motion to at least partially exclude the opinions of Apple's experts at trial. Judge Cote also denied Apple's motion to exclude the opinions of plaintiffs' expert, on whose opinion the plaintiffs' damages model is based.