Amazon E-Book Payouts: Check Your Email To See If You Were Paid

NEW YORK, NY — Amazon emailed its customers Wednesday with payout credits from a legal battle tied to the sale of Apple e-books.

If you're an Amazon customer, go check your email before you read any farther — there may be some money waiting for you in your inbox. Then come back here and read about why the company is sending out these payments.

It may not be much money — some customers received as little as 38 cents. (For more national stories, subscribe to the Across America Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

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"Apple Inc. (Apple) funded this credit to settle antitrust lawsuits brought by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of electronic books (eBooks)," Amazon explains in the email. "This new credit is in addition to any previous credit you received from the settlement."

Amazon customers don't have to do anything to receive the payments. The money will automatically be credited to their accounts.

The payments can be used in the Kindle bookstore or at Amazon. The credit will expire by April 20, 2018.

Amazon previously issued payouts for this lawsuit in June of 2016. Apple was charged with anti-competitive practices in the e-book market in a class-action suit. It settled the lawsuit in November 2014.

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