A tough sell

NPR has posted a helpful article explaining the Justice Department's newly-filed price-fixing suit against Apple Inc. and a large group of publishers, including Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster. According to the article, the lawsuit alleges that Apple and the publishers had an agreement where "retail price competition would cease, retail e-books prices would increase significantly and Apple would be guarantee [sic] a 30% 'commission' on each e-book sold."

While several of the publishers mentioned above have settled their portions of the suit, Macmillan and the ever-intractable Apple are apparently holding strong, insisting that they have done nothing wrong and their agreement actually improved the competitive environment. Which, uh... yeah. Sure.