Charles Schumer is not pleased. The Democratic senator from New York wrote an impassioned op-ed in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week decrying the U.S. government’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple, which accuses the company of colluding with publishers to raise the prices of e-books. But wait: Wouldn’t cheaper books be good for consumers? What’s the big deal?
First, some background. In case you haven’t followed the story, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple and five book publishers in April that basically accused them all of secretly meeting up at fancy Manhattan restaurants and agreeing to stick it to Amazon by raising the prices on e-books by a few dollars. The agency pricing model that was agreed to would effectively allow the publishers to gang up on Amazon and force it to raise e-book prices above the $9.99 price point that was then common for Kindle titles.
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