If you read electronic books, you may soon be getting some money back as part of a lawsuit settlement.
Iowa Attorney General spokesman, Geoff Greenwood, says the U-S Supreme Court decision earlier this year to not hear Apple’s challenge of rulings that it conspired to fix e-book prices means more refunds. Greenwood says they want to get to word out so readers don’t mistake the refund notice for something else.
“If they purchased e-books from April 1st of 2010 to May 21st of 2012, they’re most likely getting a notification this week that they are eligible for a refund — and this is legitimate,” Greenwood says. He says the new refunds could be on top of some already received as a result of the lawsuit against Apple. More than 30 states sued alleging that Apple conspired with 5 of the nation’s top book publishers to fix the e-book prices when Apple launched its I-pad 6 years ago and that caused consumers in Iowa and other states to have to pay more.
There are two types of payments depending on the publisher that you used. “If you bought your books through Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, you’ll receive an automatic credit. If you bought your e-books through Sony or Google, you will receive a check,” Greenwood explains. For each e-book that was a New York Times bestseller, you will receive $6.93. For all other e-books, the payment will be $1.57.
He says they don’t know for sure how many Iowans are involved, but estimate they will receive around $5.5 million of the overall $400 million Apple payment. “If you believe that you qualified for money and you didn’t get a notification — perhaps it went in your spam inbox — you can go to a website called ebooklawsuits.com. Or call 866-686-9333 for more information and that will get you to a settlement administrator,” Greenwood says.
Iowa will also receive a payment of approximately $271,000 for the state antitrust fund.