In a Thursday announcement, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey said that West Virginia e-book consumers will probably receive an amount of approximately $1.7 million in refunds from Apple, as a part of the company's settlement of the e-book price-fixing case.

Apple has worked out a $400 million settlement with 33 states and territories, in an effort to resolve the e-book price-fixing lawsuit filed against the company. The lawsuit accused Apple of colluding with five bigwig e-book publishers for artificially increasing the e-book prices between 2010 and 2012.

Despite the fact that the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has still to approve the proposed settlement agreement between Apple and 33 states and territories, the move by Apple to resolve the claims for consumer damages - along with the states' civil penalty claims - marks a noteworthy development in the e-book price-fixing case.

However, the final amount consumers will receive in refunds from Apple will depend upon the outcome of Apple's appeal of a 2013 District Court ruling that antitrust laws were violated by the company when it conspired with five publishers to raise e-book prices.

Nonetheless, with regard to the proposed settlement agreement, Morrisey said: "We are pleased with this settlement, which, combined with previous publisher settlements, will provide consumers with over twice their actual damages, assuming the liability finding is upheld on appeal."