Antitrust Practices and Market Power
A slight inkling of antitrust by the consumers can easily destroy a company’s reputation; bring down years of hard work and dedication. This paper highlights the case of Apple Inc. There was a recent case US vs. Apple, that has been on news media. “The Justice Department today released some of the comments it received regarding the ongoing Apple e-book price-fixing case, and many of those opposed to the deal argued that the alleged price fixing helped stop Amazon 's stronghold on the e-book market (Albanesius, 2012)”
There has been scandal associated with Apple name over the years; like be affiliated with unfair and ethical treatment of employees in oversees; work in “sweatshops” such as Foxconn. Tim cook the new CEO of Apple is being hard at work to debunk these scandals and shade good image for the company. As for this new scandal, five other publishers were in cahoots concerning the eBooks antitrust; Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, The Penguin Group, and Simon &Schuster, some made a settlement out of court, admitting of no wrongdoing. “Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster agreed to a proposed settlement (Albanesius, 2012). Venture like this case re-established Amazon’s e-book monopoly. It appears Apple entered the e-book competition late in the game, however Apple was the ringleader in the antitrust investigation. Apparently, if this deal had gone through without the FEDS uncovering this venture, Apple would have made an automatic profit by collaborating with amazon and the other five publishers by monopolizing the price of e-books. “Publishers were able to elevate their prices. Apple negotiated a 30 percent cut on all e-book sales, meaning the tech behemoth benefited from higher price tags and interest in keeping them high (Huffington, 2012)”
Apple suffer both pecuniary and non- pecuniary cost, yet the non-pecuniary seems to be more
References: (n.d.). . Retrieved September 21, 2013, from www.britannica.com Albanesius, C. (2012). Opponents of Apple E-Book Case Say Amazon is Real Threat. PC Magazine, 1. America’s weirdest government monopoly. (2010). The Economist, Bosker, B. (2012). Apple’s Antitrust Lawsuit Might Be A Big Deal For You -- But Not For Apple. Retrieved from Huffington post