Check your Amazon account for free credit as Apple coughs up in ebook lawsuit settlement
Following a court ruling that it was involved in ebook price-fixing with five publishers, Apple has started the process of paying back $400m in refunds. Despite agreeing to pay out the thick end of half a billion dollars, Apple denies doing anything wrong.
Interestingly, the payouts will not necessarily reach customers direct from Apple. Refunds are being issued through four ebook stores -- iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo -- and Amazon customers (Kindle users) should be getting their credit today. If you're in line for a refund, you should have received an email informing you, but in case this made its way to your spam folder, you can manually check to see if you've benefitted.
Head over to your Amazon account and you'll be told just how much eBook settlement credit you've received. Interestingly, the money does not have to be spent on ebooks, and you have a little over a year to use it. If you have received a refund, it is made up of $6.93 credit for books featured on the New York Times bestsellers list, and $1.57 for others.
As Amazon's information page explains:
In November 2014, a federal court approved a Settlement of antitrust lawsuits brought against Apple, Inc. ("Apple") by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of electronic books ("eBooks"). Those settlements resulted in credits for qualifying Kindle books purchased between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012. These credits are funded by Apple.
Eligible customers do not need to do anything to receive these credits. If you are eligible, we have already calculated your credit for you and added it to your Amazon account. As long as you have credit remaining we will automatically apply it to your purchase of qualifying items through Amazon.com, an Amazon device or an Amazon app. The credit applied to your purchase will appear in your order summary as a gift card during checkout and in your account history. Eligible customers should have received a notification email from Amazon on June 21, 2016. This credit will expire at 11:59pm PDT on June 24, 2017.
Apple stood accused of conspiring with major publishers including HarperCollins and Penguin Group to increase ebook prices above Amazon's rate to increase profit for those involved.
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