这种做法自然会遭到英国和美国反托拉斯部门的质疑。

    据报道，三家出版商已经接受由司法部提出的和解方案。据《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal）报道，该方案将会进行如下两件事：

    • 解除出版商与苹果公司签订的合同；

    • 终止所谓的最惠国待遇条款，并在双方签署新协议之前设定“冷静期”。

    据《华尔街日报》报道，政府提出这个等待期能让出版商和书商重新建立起一对一的关系，“完全排除串通的嫌疑”。

    据报道，冷静期持续多久对苹果公司来说是一个关键，原因很简单。

    如果冷静期持续太久，亚马逊将继续以9.99美元销售畅销电子书，而苹果公司仍然要在出版商定价之上附加30%的额外费用，这可能会严重影响苹果的电子书业务。

    更糟糕的是，这可能会导致所有的书从iBookstore下架。

    苹果公司的律师认为，他们可以提出充分理由说明，代理模式实际上增加了市场竞争，让竞争对手从亚马逊高达90%的市场份额中夺回了一些地盘。

    与此同时，与大多数出版商不同，苹果公司财力雄厚，足以支撑它与美国政府展开诉讼战，直至达成更符合自己意愿的和解方案。

    最新消息：正如预期，法庭于周三开始审理。请参考阅读《为何市场对苹果反托拉斯诉讼反应冷淡》（Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit.）。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    It's not hard to see why such an arrangement raised eyebrows in antitrust divisions on both sides of the Atlantic.

    The settlement the DOJ has proposed -- and which three publishers have reportedly accepted -- would, according to the Wall Street Journal, do two things:

    • It would tear up the contracts the publishers signed with Apple

    • It would scrap the most-favored nation clause and impose a "cooling-off period" before they could sign another deal.

    According to the Journal, the government has argued that the waiting period would allow publishers and booksellers to resume a one-to-one relationship, "free of the taint of collusion."

    The length of that cooling-off period is reported to be one of the sticking points for Apple, and it's easy to see why.

    An extended cooling-off period -- in which Amazon goes back to selling bestselling e-books for $9.99 and Apple is still adding its 30% surcharge to the publishers' prices -- could seriously damage Apple's e-book business.

    Worse still, it could keep the books off the iBookstore altogether.

    Apple's lawyers seem to think they can make a case that going to the agency model actually increased competition, allowing e-book rivals to take back some of the 90% market share Amazon had amassed.

    Moreover the company -- unlike most book publishers -- has pockets deep enough to do legal battle with the U.S. government for as long as it takes to get a settlement more to its liking.

    UPDATE: The hammer, as expected, fell Wednesday morning. See Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit.