APPLE WAS DENIED a bid to hold off a trial in a case which accuses the company of conspiring with five major publishers to fix ebook prices.
The US federal judge Denise Cote said the trial, which is to be held on 14th July, had already been postponed once and should go forward.
According to Reuters, this paves the way for more than two dozen states in the US to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The trail to assign damages was supposed to be held in May, but it was pushed back by two months to allow adequate time for class notification, Cote’s order said.
After a non-jury trial, Apple was found to be conspiring with major publishers from 2009 to 2010 to raise ebook prices and hinder competitors like Amazon. It had tried blocking an antitrust monitor appointed by the US Justice Department to ensure it didn’t fix ebook prices back in January, but was denied.
Meanwhile, the month-long case between Apple and Samsung continues with it being revealed Google offered to help cover Samsung’s costs.
In a testimony on Wednesday, Apple’s lawyers showed a video in which a Google patent lawyer described terms of the company’s agreement with Samsung, immediately after Apple’s lawyer read aloud a statement from Samsung saying it wasn’t seeking compensation from any third party.
While Google isn’t directly involved in the case, a lawyer from Samsung described the case in his opening argument as an “attack on Android.” The company has called several of Google’s engineers to testify on Samsung’s behalf, saying that some of the technology Apple is disputing over was already created before the iPhone launched.
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