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.
