Senator says Apple e-book suit has 'empowered monopolists'

(Credit: Apple)

New York Sen. Charles Schumer reprimanded the Department of Justice today for filing its e-book antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Using strong language in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, he wrote that "the suit could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it."

The Department of Justice brought the lawsuit against Apple in April alleging that the tech giant and a group of book publishers colluded to illegally fix e-book prices to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its discount pricing.

The suit also alleges that Apple and the publishers pushed an "agency model" in which publishers set their own e-book prices, rather than the traditional wholesale model in which publishers set a retail price and retailers then set their own sales price.

In his op-ed, Schumer doesn't seem convinced that the traditional wholesale is necessarily good for publishers, authors, and consumers -- saying that it makes the publishing world less diverse.

"The suit will restore Amazon to the dominant position atop the e-books market it occupied for years before competition arrived in the form of Apple," he wrote. "If that happens, consumers will be forced to acc... [Read more]