On 6 September 2012 the US District Court approved a partial settlement of the anti-trust proceedings that were begun by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) against Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster(1). The action is only partially settled, because the settlement applies only in relation to Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. The other defendants (Macmillan, Penguin and Apple) have all declined to enter into the settlement, and the trial of the matter is scheduled to commence in July 2013.
Hot on the heels of the US settlement decision, on 19 September the European Commission (Commission) announced that it was planning to partially settle its own investigation, of the same issue in relation to the same parties, on the basis of a proposed deal agreed with all parties other than Penguin.(2) More…
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