How Much You'll Get From That Apple E-book Settlement

We're now getting to the stage where anyone who bought an e-book during the Great Publisher and Apple Conspiracy to raise the prices of e-books is going to get some money back. The law may indeed grind small, as it has done in this case, but it also grinds slowly. One of the things that's worth noting though is that while Apple was, at least the courts seem to think it was, the prime instigator of all of this it's not Apple that is actually returning the cash to customers. And it's also not just being returned to those who bought through iTunes either. Here's the actual amounts that are to be returned:

Assuming the Macmillan and Penguin settlements go through — they’re set to be finalized on December 6, 2013 — anybody who bought an ebook from Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin or Macmillan between April 1, 2010 and May 1, 2012 will get a refund of $3.06 if that ebook was a New York Times bestseller at any point in its publishing history, and $0.73 per ebook that was never a NYT bestseller.

To explain a little about this. The allegation was not that Apple and the publishers conspired to increase the price of books that were sold through Apple. Rather, it was that by their actions they increased the price of books sold through all channels. Thus it's the publishers, those who received the money, who have to make recompense. And they have to make it to all who bought e-books from them during that period: not just those who bought through Apple.

I will admit to one amusement about all of this. Apple and the publishers, rightly or wrongly, thought they were staving off an impending Amazon monopoly on e-books. And as this page shows, they've now got to compensate people who bought their e-books through that great enemy, Amazon. That must hurt.

Do note, it's anyone and everyone who bought an e-book published by any of those publishers between those two dates. This does not apply only to those who purchased through Apple or iTunes.