The U.S. Department of Justice recently accused Apple and 5 large book publishers of conspiring to raise e-Book prices in the iBookstore. Experts said that it would be unlikely for Apple to be found as guilty of collusion, and now the Cupertino company is wanting a trial to defend itself against the DoJ’s accusations.
Reuters reports:
Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a lawyer for the Silicon Valley giant said in court on Wednesday.
Two publishers took a similar stance in the first hearing in Manhattan federal court since the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice last week accused Apple and five publishers of colluding to break up Amazon.com’s low-cost dominance of the digital book market.
Apple lets e-Book publishers set their own prices, but a title offered in the iBookstore must be sold for the same price or higher in other marketplaces, like Amazon. Unlike Apple, Amazon operates under the wholesale model, giving it nearly full control over e-Book pricing in its online store. Apple responded to the DoJ’s claims initially saying that the iBookstore “broke Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.”
If you want to learn more about this case between the DoJ and Apple, make sure to check out our complete rundown.
