The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced yesterday Dec. 18 that it has reached a settlement with Penguin Group (USA) in its civil antitrust lawsuit accusing the nation's largest book publishers of colluding with Apple to raise e-book prices, Associated Press (AP) reported.

If approved by a federal judge, the settlement leaves computer giant Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers (Macmillan) as the only defendants standing against the federal government's charges that Apple conspired with several publishers in the fall of 2009 to force e-book prices several dollars above the $9.99 charged by Amazon.com on its Kindle device.

The Justice Department, which filed the suit in April, settled with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers and Simon & Schuster earlier this year. The trial against Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers is scheduled to begin in June.

"The proposed settlement with Penguin will be an important step toward undoing the harm caused by the publishers' anticompetitive conduct and restoring retail price competition so consumers can pay lower prices for Penguin's e-books," said Jamillia Ferris, chief of staff and counsel at the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The settlement had been expected by some industry observers in light of Penguin's impending merger with Random House, which is not a defendant in the case. The merger would create the world's largest publisher of consumer books.

Under the settlement, Penguin "will be prohibited for two years from entering into new agreements that constrain retailers' ability to offer discounts or other promotions to consumers to encourage the sale of the Penguin's e-books," and must submit to "a strong antitrust compliance program" that includes telling federal officials about any joint e-book ventures or any communications with other publishers, Justice Department officials said.

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