Apple may be preparing to appeal its e-book price fixing defeat, but the Department of Justice has already devised its punishment.
The DoJ proposed a plan today to stop Apple from repeating its alleged crimes in the future, reports CNET.
Apple last month was found guilt y of conspiring with publishers to increase the price of e-books. The publishers previously settled out of court, but Apple went all the way to trial, a move that didn't pay off.
The measures proposed today by the DoJ still need to go through the court, but if approved they should prove quite thorough.
A modest proposal
The proposed plan is "intended to halt Apple's anticompetitive conduct, restore lost competition, and prevent a recurrence of the illegal activities," according to the DoJ.
The plan is multifaceted. For starters, Apple would need to allow competing iOS apps like Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's to link directly to those companies' e-book stores so that customers can more easily compare prices.
Apple would also need to end its agreements with Hachette, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster, the five complicit publishers that settled rather than going to court.
Apple wouldn't b e allowed to enter into contracts that would fix its competitors prices in any way, funnel information between the conspiring publishers or retaliate against them, or - for five years - "[accept] limitations on its own ability to price-compete with respect to e-books."
Finally, Apple would be forced to pay for an external monitor to oversee the company's antitrust compliance policies and make sure everything's on the up-and-up.
Again, the court still needs to approve these measures, and a hearing is scheduled on August 9 for that exact purpose.
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