NEW YORK, June 21 (UPI) -- Apple's defense team in New York said prosecutors did not connect the technology giant to a conspiracy with publishers to raise the price of e-books.
In closing statements in an antitrust case in its third week in a federal court in New York, Apple attorney Orin Snyder said there was no proof that the company's executives knew that publishers were talking among themselves as Apple joined the e-book business in 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Apple negotiated a different pricing structure than Amazon.com, the dominant player in the e-book business that had a set price of $9.99 per book.
Apple's pricing agreement with publishers gave the publisher more clout in pricing. Five publishers that were frustrated with Amazon's power over pricing, have pleaded guilty in the case, leaving Apple to make a stand by itself.
In a closing statement that lasted 3 hours, Snyder called the evidence "ambiguous at best." He said Apple was an innocent bystander, albeit one close to the action, in a disagreement between the publishers and Amazon.com.
"Apple walked into the middle of this e-book revolt," Snyder said.
There is no proof that Apple knew of what publishers were doing -- there's "no such thing as conspiracy by telepathy," he said.
Prosecutors were scheduled to make their closing statement Friday afternoon.
