The Justice Department is seeking to acquire government oversight of Apple’s iTunes and App Store – a move that would give feds control over content ranging from books to music to television shows and movies.
After winning an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple in July, the Department of Justice is attempting to gain further price control over the multinational computer corporation.
1. Justice Department wants to control iTunes
Store
The Justice Department is seeking to acquire government oversight of Apple’s
iTunes and App Store – a move that would give feds control over content ranging
from books to music to television shows and movies.
After winning an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple in July, the Department of
Justice is attempting to gain further price control over the multinational
computer corporation.
Last month, a federal judge ruled that Apple is guilty of conspiring to raise
the retail prices of e-books. The Justice Department on Friday proposed sweeping
punishments: officials suggested that Apple be forced to terminate contracts it
holds with five major book publishers, barred from entering contracts that
2. control e-book prices, and forced to allow iPhone or iPad users to directly buy
books from other retailers with their devices.
“The court found that Apple’s illegal conduct deprived consumers of the
benefits of e-book price competition and forced them to pay substantially higher
prices,” Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ antitrust
division, told the Washington Post. “Under the department’s proposed order,
Apple’s illegal conduct will cease and Apple and its senior executives will be
prevented from conspiring to thwart competition in the future.”
If the proposed punishments go into effect, Apple would be required to house a
court-appointed monitor who would enforce these regulations and make sure the
firm abides by them for at least 10 years.
In addition to the proposed consequences, the Justice Department has asked a
federal judge to limit Apple’s influence in the publishing market by giving the
feds government oversight of iTunes and the App Store. The government hopes to
prohibit the corporation from negotiating with media companies to increase
prices at companies that rival Apple, as well as its own stores.
In a court filing submitted Friday, Apple called the proposals a “draconian and
punitive intrusion into Apple’s business, wildly out of proportion to any
adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm.”
The company vowed to fight the DOJ on its proposals, and accused the department
of abusing its power.
The proposal “regulates areas of Apple’s business… which bear no relation to
the wrongdoing alleged in this case,” the company’s attorneys wrote in the
court filing. “These overbroad and vague terms violate principles of equity and
antitrust law, as well as Apple’s constitutional rights to fair notice of
judicial penalties.”
Publishers accused of raising e-book prices settled their allegations with the
DOJ, but Apple took a risk by gambling with a trial instead, and might now have
to fall under strict government oversight. The US District Court must approve
the DOJ proposals before they go into effect. The court will hold a hearing on
the measures on Aug. 9.