West Virginia consumers are expected to begin Tuesday receiving their portion of the $400 million Apple agreed to pay over allegations of e-book price fixing.
Affected consumers in the state will receive as much as $2.4 million, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a news release Monday. The state will be paid $527,000 for reimbursement of costs, fees and expenses from Apple.
Most West Virginians will receive payment through account credits or checks. The refunds are set to "hit consumer accounts" beginning Tuesday and continue through Friday, according to Morrisey's release.
A settlement was reached in 2014 between Apple and 33 states and territories to resolve allegations that Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, colluded with e-book publishers to charge higher prices in response to steep discounts offered by Amazon.com. Jobs, who died in October 2011, negotiated the deals as Apple was preparing to release the first iPad in 2010, according to the Associated Press.
Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Cobo will credit accounts, unless consumers through the claims process indicated a check was desired instead. People with Sony and Google accounts will receive a check.
According to the news release, a federal judge in New York found that Apple violated antitrust laws by conspiring with five publishers to raise prices for e-books between 2010 and 2012. Penguin Group (USA), which is part of Penguin Random House; Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, doing business as Macmillan; Hachette Book Group Inc.; HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster Inc., agreed to pay $166 million.
The amount to be received is based on the number of e-books purchased between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012. Consumers will receive $6.93 for every New York Times bestseller purchased and $1.57 for all other e-books.