Judge approves U.S. settlement in e-book case

NEW YORK — A federal judge has approved a U.S. government settlement with three major publishers accused of conspiring with Apple to fix the prices of electronic books.

The ruling released Thursday requires the publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, to abandon a pricing system that they conceived in 2010 when Apple Inc. released the iPad and began selling digital books in its iTunes store.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote approved the deal nearly five months after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging Apple worked with the largest digital book publishers to rig a system designed to counteract Amazon.com’s pricing practices.

Apple is fighting the lawsuit’s allegations along with two other book publishers, Macmillan and Penguin Group. They will make their case in a trial next June.

“The government alleges substantial ongoing harm as a result of the settling defendants’ illegal activity,” Cote wrote in an opinion. “E-books consumers should not be forced to wait until after the June 2013 trial to experience the significant anticipated benefits of the decree.”

The settlement, filed the day the Justice Department sued, requires the three publishers to cancel contracts with Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and other sellers of e-books that allow the publishers to set prices. The publishers must also refrain for two years from signing contracts that would prevent retailers from setting prices, according to the agreement.

Members of the public submitted 868 comments on the proposed agreement, more than 90% of which opposed it.

Last week, 49 states and five U.S. territories said they had reached a $70-million settlement with Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins on behalf of consumers.

Gina Talamona, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said, “The department is pleased the court found the proposed settlement to be in the public interest and that consumers will start to benefit from the restored competition in this important industry.”