The agreements also included a price parity provision, or Most-Favored-Nation clause (“MFN”), which not only protected Apple by guaranteeing it could match the lowest retail price listed on any competitor’s e-bookstore, but also imposed a severe financial penalty upon the Publisher Defendants if they did not force Amazon and other retailers similarly to change their business models and cede control over e-book pricing to the Publishers. As Apple made clear to the Publishers, “There is no one outside of us that can do this for you. If we miss this opportunity, it will likely never come again.”
Despite that, I must admit, I feel ambivalent about the ruling. Amazon's below-cost retail pricing appeared to have otherwise prevented Apple from even attempting to enter the market, at all, unless they came up with some way to profit. I guess they picked the wrong way.