Apple has agreed to $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer lawsuits claiming the company conspired with five major publishers to fix the prices of e-books sold in Apple’s iBookstore. The settlement information was found in court records filed on Wednesday.
But the settlement, which would provide $400 million for consumers, is conditioned on the outcome of a pending appeal of a New York federal judge’s ruling last year that Apple was liable for violating antitrust laws.
Under the terms of the settlement, if the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reverses the liability finding, the amount Apple pays could be reduced to $70 million – $50 million of that would go to consumers – or it could eliminate the payments completely.
“While we cannot predict the outcome of the appeal with certainty, we are confident in the case we made against Apple at trial,” Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said in a statement.
Apple has not commented on the matter.
The settlement, subject to the approval of U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, was announced in June. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed at that time.
In July 2013, Judge Cote found Apple guilty of colluding with book publishers to fix e-book pricing.
