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Apple tries to avoid being brought to book again

by on24 April 2014

Still insists it did nothing wrong

The fruity cargo cult Apple’s reality distortion field failed to move a judge to delay its anti-trust hearing again. Jobs’ Mob is in deep hot water for forming a cartel with publishers to squeeze huge amounts of money out its customers by increasing the price of ebooks and sticking one to Amazon.

Apple’s defence seems to be that since Steve Jobs came up with the plan, it can’t be evil but must have just been as innovative as the rounded rectangle. However while its co-conspirators have all pleaded guilty, Apple thinks it was perfectly legal. The outfit has been playing all sorts of legal games with the court, including refusing to work with court appointed monitors, legal delays and appeals. Now it seems that US District Judge Denise Cote has said that enough is enough and the July 14 trial had already been postponed once and should go forward, paving the way for more than two dozen states to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Last year Cote found that Apple from 2009 to 2010 conspired with the publishers to raise e-book prices and impede competitors such as Amazon.com. The trial to assign damages was supposed to be held in May but it was pushed back two months to allow adequate time for class notification, Cote's order said. Apple asked a federal appeals court to intervene and halt the trial claiming that it will do considerable harm among its consumers if class notice is disseminated. Obviously because illegally jacking up the price of ebooks did no harm to the company’s reputation.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs are seeking $840 million in damages. The publishers previously agreed to pay more than $166 million to settle related antitrust charges.

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