Apple asks US Supreme Court to overturn e-book antitrust ruling News
Apple asks US Supreme Court to overturn e-book antitrust ruling

[JURIST] Apple [corporate website] asked [cert. petition, PDF] the US Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday to review and overturn an appeals court ruling that the company conspired with book publishers to increase e-book prices. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had ruled [opinion, PDF] in June that Apple violated the Sherman Antitrust Act [text] when it entered into deals with five major book publishers for the iBookstore. If the Second Circuit’s decision is upheld, Apple will have to pay $450 million dollars to consumers [Reuters report] based on a contingent settlement [JURIST report] agreed upon in 2014. Throughout the entire legal process, Apple has claimed that it is innocent and committed no wrongdoing.

The world’s largest technology companies have faced antitrust charges in the US and internationally in recent months. In May the European Commission opened an investigation [JURIST report] into potential antitrust violations in the e-commerce market with the scope of the investigation including a number of the world’s largest technology and search companies. In April the European Commission initiated antitrust proceedings against Google [JURIST report] accusing the company of utilizing its dominant position in the search engine market to hurt competitors. In February a judge for the Northern District of California dismissed a class action suit against Google [JURIST report] for allegedly monopolizing search engines in Android phones. Last year a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California approved a settlement between federal antitrust authorities and eBay [JURIST report] over allegations that eBay agreed to not to selectively recruit and hire employees from rival companies.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.