Apple begins $400M payout to e-book customers

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Three years after losing an antitrust lawsuit, Apple on Tuesday began paying back $400 million to millions of e-book customers, although the company maintains no wrongdoing.

The payout is the final chapter in a legal saga dating to 2012 regarding Apple’s alleged agreements with publishers to set e-book prices.

The company is now required to refund the amount customers overpaid for e-books purchased between April 2010 and May 2012.

The money is being credited into users’ accounts on online sellers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple’s iTunes store.

Apple called the case “fundamentally flawed” but did not officially comment on the payouts.

“To make this settlement effective and accessible for consumers, our team faced a sizable undertaking that entailed almost constant contact with the retailers to make sure the credits will be applied to consumer accounts across the country,” according to a statement released Tuesday by Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, the law firm that pursued the case. “This is the second round of distribution in the case, and we believe the only case in the country to have so much money returned directly to consumers.”

Also Tuesday, Apple also pulled the I Sea app from its App Store after critics charged that the program was a public relations stunt.

The app supposedly featured real-time satellite images of the Mediterranean Sea to allow iPhone users to hunt for boats of refugees in danger and report the information to the human rights group, Migrant Offshore Aid Stations (MOAS).

Created by international ad agency Grey for Good, the app received praise in the technology press as well as a medal from the prestigious Cannes Lions advertising conference Monday evening.

Developers, however, pointed out that the I Sea app actually used very old satellite imagery of the ocean -- negating its usefulness.

Because of “false information and features” the app was pulled from the App Store, Apple said.

“We were dismayed to discover that real time images were not being used,” said MOAS in a statement Tuesday. “We have since discontinued our relationship with Grey for Good,” it added.