Apple fought the iBooks price fixing case for a long time before finally deciding to settle. It has set up a $400 million settlement fund to compensate consumers who were impacted by this entire issue. The Apple iBooks settlement amount will be sent out this week in the form of store credit or cheques for up to $6.83 per e-book, this according to the law firm that represented the plaintiffs.
The law firm Hagens Berman has confirmed via a press release to notify affected customers about how the settlement amount will be sent out. Customers are eligible to receive payouts valued at twice their losses.
Apple agreed to settle this lawsuit after it failed to prove that it was not guilty of working with publishers to artificially raise prices of e-books sold through iBooks. An appeal to the Supreme Court failed as well and it was only then that Apple decided to settle the case and offer compensation.
This turns out to be $1.57 per e-book for most titles and up to $6.93 for every New York Times bestseller book. Titles that are eligible for this payout include those purchased from Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan (Holtzbrinck Publishers), Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster between April 1st, 2010 and May 21st, 2012.
Customers who meet the criteria mentioned above and purchased digital books from Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and iBooks are eligible for this settlement which will arrive in their respective store accounts. Some customers might receive cheques in the mail instead.
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