Apple Loses e-Books Price-Fixing Case, Violated Antitrust Law

With one court ruling, Apple (AAPL) has gone from consumer-friendly hero to big-business bad guy.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Apple conspired with five major book publishers to raise retail prices on e-books in violation of U.S. antitrust law. Apple's actions resulted in consumers paying millions of dollars more for e-books because pricing power was taken away from e-book retailers like Amazon.com (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS), the U.S. Department of Justice said.