^®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

U.S. Responds to Comments on Penguin E-Book Antitrust Settlement
On April 11, 2012, the United States filed a civil antitrust complaint alleging that Apple, Inc. and five of the six largest publishers in the United States conspired to raise prices of e-books in the United States in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1. On September 5, 2012, the court issued an Opinion and Order approving the U.S.'s settlement with three of the defendant publishers. The U.S. subsequently reached a settlement with another defendant, Penguin, on essentially the same terms. The U.S. published the proposed Penguin settlement and on April 15, 2013, published the U.S.'s response to comments on the Penguin settlement. The U.S.' April Federal Register notice states that "the United States continues to believe that the proposed Final Judgment as to Penguin...will provide an effective and appropriate remedy for the antitrust violations alleged in the Complaint.