Apple accused in court of colluding with publishers for deciding e-book prices

The ongoing battle between software giant Apple and the US government took to another level of development when the US Justice Department accused in court that Apple decided upon the e-book prices along with the publishers.

According to Fox News, Justice Department lawyer, Mark Ryan in the proceeding headed by Denise Cote, said that the government should find the Apple's conspiracy with publishers, which led to price hike while the company's defense lawyer, Orin Synder said that such a finding would prove a 'dangerous precedent' to other businesses.

Ryan said that the government had given enough evidence against Apple for having conspired with publishers to raise the prices above the bargain price offered by e-book market leader Amazon.

However, Apple's lawyer Synder defended the company and said that it did not conspire with the publishers in setting the price and did not violate the antitrust laws.

Synder further said that the government is asking the court to draw inference and make factual findings, which cannot be supported adding that Barnes and Noble acted in a similar fashion in 2010 to compete with Amazon as competitive forces in the industry required it.

Ryan said that Barnes and Noble did not make a deal with publishers and raised the e-book prices substantially like Apple did, the report added.