By Gary Lloyd
MONTGOMERY — Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange on Tuesday announced that Alabama consumers will receive $1.956 million as part of a national settlement regarding price-fixing of electronic books, known as E-books.
Many of the payments will be electronically transmitted this week back to the accounts through which consumers made the purchases, and in cases where this is undetermined, paper checks will be mailed.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange
photo courtesy of the Office of the Attorney General
This agreement settles claims brought by Strange and 32 other attorneys general in 2012 against five of the nation’s six largest E-book publishers: Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Simon and Schuster Inc., Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC doing business as MacMillan, and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. A trial is expected this summer to determine damages due to consumers from Apple Inc., which declined to settle claims against it.
“I am pleased that we have been able to recover nearly $2 million due to Alabamians, and that the entirety of this settlement is being used to compensate consumers for their damages,” Strange said.
The amount of individual refunds will be based on the number of eligible E-books purchased during the claims period of April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012. Consumers should look for upcoming email communications from their E-book retailer or from the lawsuit settlement administrator. More information is available on the settlement website, www.ebookagsettlements.com.
In addition to Alabama, others joining the settlement include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
