Reuters / Brendan McDermid
Apple has reached an agreement to settle a civil class action suit related to e-book pricing, according to court documents filed on Monday.
The documents, filed Monday, indicate a deal has been reached, but don’t spell out terms of the arrangement. The plaintiffs in the case had been seeking as much as $840 million in damages.
“The parties write to inform the Court that the Class Plaintiffs, State Plaintiffs, and Apple have executed a binding agreement in principle to resolve the Class litigation, and the damages phase of the States' litigation,” plaintiff’s attorney Steve Berman wrote in a letter to the Denise Cote, the federal judge presiding over the case.
Although the parties have come to some sort of agreement, Apple is still appealing the court’s ruling from last year that Apple was liable for violating both federal and state antitrust rules and the letter to the court says “any payment to be made by Apple under the settlement agreement will be contingent on the outcome of that appeal.”
The judge signed an order agreeing the plaintiffs in the case will have until July 16 to file the proposed settlement terms.
An Apple representative declined to comment; Berman did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Apple has maintained it has done nothing wrong and has fought efforts to have a court monitor oversee the company’s compliance.
