Check your email — you might have Amazon credits waiting for you
Last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear a long-running case about Apple price-fixing ebooks, making the earlier $400 million settlement final.
Now Apple's paying it out. You might have credits for free ebooks waiting in your inbox — and you don't have to do anything.
Here's how it works:
- You're eligible if you bought an e-book from a large publishing company between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.
- Those books could have been purchased not just from Apple's iBooks, but Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo too.
- Those credits will be automatically applied to the account where you bought the ebooks, unless you requested a paper check years ago.
- If you're eligible, you'll receive a $6.93 credit for any New York Times bestseller and $1.57 for any other e-book from a large publisher.
The law firm that's handling the payouts has a lot more information along with a FAQ. Make sure you check your old email address, too.
If you're wondering why Apple is paying for free Amazon credits, it's a long and fascinating story. But essentially, the complaint was that Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue strongarmed major publishers into a pricing agreement that ended up causing ebook prices to spike overnight.
Because the judgment was handed down years ago, Apple started sending out iTunes credits to customers in 2014.
Here's an example of the email that's going out to eligible customers:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/745285410616651776
Sweet. Apple just gave me $87 to spend at Amazon. pic.twitter.com/eH04UWVY5X
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