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The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Lawrence Hurley over at Reuters reports [reuters.com] that Apple now has no legal options left to keep from paying the settlement for price-fixing ebooks:

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Apple Inc's challenge to an appellate court decision that it conspired with five publishers to increase e-book prices, meaning it will have to pay $450 million as part of a settlement.

The court's decision not to hear the case leaves in place a June 2015 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found Apple (AAPL.O) liable for engaging in a conspiracy that violated federal antitrust laws.

Apple, in asking the high court to hear the case, said the June appeals court decision that the company had conspired with the publishers contradicted Supreme Court precedent and would "chill innovation and risk-taking."

The 2nd Circuit's ruling followed a 2013 decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote that Apple played a "central role" in a conspiracy with publishers to raise e-book prices.

The Justice Department said the scheme caused some e-book prices to rise to $12.99 or $14.99 from the $9.99 price previously charged by market leader Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN.O)

"Apple’s liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of e-books is settled once and for all," said Bill Baer, head of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division.

Now you might think that my "Yay, capitalism" self would be railing against that but collusion to stifle competition is in fact anti-capitalistic, so "Yay, DOJ!".

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