Australian consumer watchdog considering suing Apple over alleged ebook price fixing

Just yesterday it was reported that the US Department of Justice was suing Apple over alleged price fixing regarding its ebooks. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now it looks like the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) could be going after Apple over the same thing in Australia. This would make it the ACCC’s 2nd time suing Apple with the first time regarding “false advertising” over Apple’s 4G LTE claims with its new iPad.

While the ACCC has yet to make their move, they have urged retailers to raise the issue, and while they can’t comment on their own investigation, they have since released a statement say:

“The ACCC has previously stated that impediments to emerging competition involving online traders is an area of priority [...] Competition concerns may arise where traders seek to restrict the discounting of products by way of restrictive arrangements with suppliers. Retailers with concerns should raise them with the ACCC.”

Assuming the ACCC were to pursue this and is successful with their lawsuit, customers who have purchased books through Apple’s iBooks could be entitled to partial refund. We will be keeping an eye out for this, so remember to check back with us from time to time for more updates!