Second Circuit Affirms Ruling Against Apple In E-book Price-Fixing Case

We have previously posted about United States v. Apple, Inc., a blockbuster trial that ended with Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York concluding that Apple had conspired with five publishing companies to raise the price of e-books.  At oral argument before the Second Circuit, the panel hearing Apple's appeal seemed particularly interested in whether the district court had erred in applying the relatively lenient per se standard rather than the rule of reason, under which the plaintiffs would have had to prove that the anti-competitive injury caused by Apple outweighed any pro-competitive benefits of its conduct.  Now, that panel has ruled 2-to-1 that Judge Cote was correct to apply the per se standard, and affirmed her conclusion that Apple violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act.