A U.S. appeals court has rejected Apple's bid to delay a July trial to determine damages after the company reportedly conspired to fix the prices of e-books.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said in a brief order that the July 14 trial should "proceed as scheduled," while Apple tried to pursue its appeal of U.S. District Judge Denise Cote's ruling that it colluded with five publishers to raise e-book prices, according to Reuters.
"The district court properly determined that Apple had participated in a horizontal conspiracy among competing publishers to fix ebook prices, which was per se illegal," the U.S. Department of Justice wrote regarding the decision.
Over two dozen state attorney generals joined the Department of Justice in suing the iPad maker over e-books price fixing.
Those states, along with a group of consumers, are looking for up to $840 million in damages, according to Reuters.
The amount of damages will be litigated before Cote at a trial scheduled for July 14, according to Reuters.
"The district court's ruling that Apple, in the very act of launching the iPad, inventing the iBooks Store, and entering the ebooks market, violated the Sherman Act is a radical departure from modern antitrust law and policy," the iPad maker argued in a court filing seen by The Register. "If allowed to stand, the ruling will stifle innovation, chill competition, and harm consumers. This court should overturn it."
Apple has denied any wrongdoing on more than one occasion, and the appeal of Cote's liability is expected to last months.
The iPhone maker has yet to comment on the decision yet.
"We are pleased with the decision and continue to prepare for the upcoming damages trial," a spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, who is leading the case along with his Texas counterpart Greg Abbott, according to Reuters.
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