Economic Analysis of Social Issues 1st Edition by Alan Grant

تمرين 23

In 2012, the Department of Justice brought an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for conspiring to raise e-book prices (see https://ebooksagsettlements.com). The DOJ alleged that several publishers, together with Apple, planned an arrangement that raised e-book prices and then banded together to attempt to impose the pricing model on Amazon.com, which had been steeply discounting e-books. The settlement agreement resulted in $400 million in payments from Apple to individuals who paid high prices for e-books during the period in question. Explain why the government's action against Apple may be more effective at eliminating this anticompetitive behavior than relying on individuals to seek damages from Apple through a privately initiated lawsuit.