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Apple will pay $450 million after Supreme Court denies ebooks price-fixing appeal

Apple will pay $450 million after Supreme Court denies ebooks price-fixing appeal

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The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal on Apple's ebooks price-fixing case, locking the company in to a $450 million settlement, Reuters reports.

After a major Justice Department investigation found that Apple had conspired with book publishers to raise the price of ebooks, the company eventually agreed to pay the $450 million, pending appeal. After exhausting its legal options with lower courts, Apple took its case all the way to the Supreme Court, which today made the decision to not hear the case.

The court's decision brings an end to the drawn out legal fight, which first started with the Justice Department's 2012 lawsuit. The suit accused Apple of working with publishers to inflate prices as a means of competing with Amazon.

In petitioning the Supreme Court to hear an appeal, Apple argued that letting the decision stand would "harm competition and the national economy," ultimately changing rules that "govern disruptive entry by dynamic companies into new or stagnant markets."