Tim Cook Ordered to Testify in E-Book Price-Fixing Case

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered to testify in the U.S. Justice Department case against the company over alleged e-book price fixing, reports Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan granted the Justice Department's request to compel Cook to testify for four hours in the lawsuit, which accuses Apple of conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices. The government had argued Cook likely had relevant information about Apple's entry into the e-books market. It also said Cook likely had conversations related to e-books with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.

Cote said the deposition was necessary due to the death of Steve Jobs. "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," as well as to counter Apple's defense arguments, said Cote.


Apple has been left to fight the Department of Justice alone as Macmillan, the last publisher not to settle, recently did agree to a settlement. The DOJ had already settled with Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette.

Apple has been very vocal in opposing the Department of Justice's actions calling them "fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented."

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