Apple on late Tuesday filed its formal motion to fight the Justice Department’s lawsuit alleging that Apple and five publishing companies conspired to set higher prices for e-books, Reuters reported. As Apple’s filing stated, via Reuters:
“Apple’s entry into e-book distribution is classic procompetitive conduct” that created competition where none existed, Apple said in its court papers.
“For Apple to be subject to hindsight legal attack for a business strategy well-recognized as perfectly proper sends the wrong message to the market,” it added. “The government’s complaint against Apple is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law.”
The Justice Department has already settled with three of the publishing companies accused of colluding with Apple — Hachette (owned by Lagardère SCA), HarperCollins (owned by News Corp.) and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS) — but Apple and another company, Macmillan, have decided to fight back.
