Appeals Court Upholds District Court Decision in Diesel eBooks Antitrust Case

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals upheld in a Monday decision a federal district court ruling in favor of defendants Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin in an antitrust suit brought by Diesel eBooks. Diesel claimed business injuries resulting from “restraint of trade” by Apple and the five major publishing companies. The appeals judges agreed with the district court that the appellant “suffered no antitrust injury” and that Diesel’s business “was not grounded in price competition,” that it “contemporaneously viewed the adoption of agency pricing as a boon, and that its decline was not a legally cognizable antitrust injury flowing from the unlawful nature of the conspiracy.” Diesel couldn't be reached for comment.