US Faces Tough Questions in Apple E-Books Antitrust Appeal

A US government lawyer faced tough questioning in an appeals court as he sought to defend a judge’s ruling that Apple conspired with five publishers to raise e-book prices.

In arguments before the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, some judges appeared sympathetic to Apple’s contention that it engaged in pro-competitive conduct when in 2010 it entered an e-books market largely dominated by Amazon. Amazon at the time had a 90 percent market share. Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs asked a Department of Justice lawyer why it was wrong for the publishers to get together to defeat a “monopolist” that was using “predatory pricing.” Malcolm Stewart, the Justice Department lawyer, replied that no publisher on its own would have entered into the deals with Apple unless they were conspiring to drive up e-book prices.