A U.S. district judge has ordered Apple chief Tim Cook to sit for a deposition in the case pertaining to alleged fixing of price in the e-book market, Reuters has reported. The Justice Department had requested the court to make Cook sit for a deposition and now Judge Denise Cote has granted a ruling in favour of the department.
Almost a year ago, the Justice Department sued Apple along with five other publishers for allegedly fixing the prices in the e-books market that resulted in an increase in rates for digital books. Apple co-founder and former chief Steve Jobs was blamed to be the main player behind the move.
Apple denied the claims made by the government agencies and maintained that it had not done anything wrong. The publishers that were sued also denied the allegations, but they later reached settlement with the department, leaving Apple alone in the fight. The publishers include Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan and Penguin Group.
According to the government, Cook might have information about Apple’s plans of entering the e-books market, and that Jobs might have discussed some plans and ideas with the current Apple chief with respect to the pricing matter of digital books. Since Jobs died in 2011, the court is of the view that Cook might be the right person to sit for the deposition. Cote said of Jobs’ death:
“Because of that loss, I think the government is entitled to take testimony from high-level executives within Apple about topics relevant to the government case.”
The trial is expected to begin in June. The government has not requested any damages in the trial but it wants to hold Apple accountable for violating trust so that no such practice is performed in future.
Meanwhile, Apple’s lawyer in the case Orin Snyder has called the government’s request to depose Cook a “fishing expedition”. Many other Apple executives have already given or scheduled to give their testimony in the case and Snyder thinks that there is no need to depose Cook. He said:
“This effort to depose Mr. Cook, Apple’s CEO, reflects the fact the government cannot meet its burden of proof in this case.”
There has not been any comment from Apple with respect to the recent development.
Photo: GeekyBlog
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