Apple has notified the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals that it will be appealing the
court's ruling that it violated antitrust laws when it struck deals with e-book publishers. It is being supported by publisher Simon & Schuster, which has filed a separate appeal opposing the injunction that will put significant limits on Apple's business conduct with the publishers for the next three years.
In an August filing with Judge Denise Cote, the presiding judge in the e-book trial, Apple discussed the arguments it will use in the inevitable appeal. Judge Cote examined
a list of nine objections over evidence that it believes was "improperly admitted, excluded or disregarded" during the trial. In her response, Cote mostly dismissed Apple's allegations without explanation of her weighing of the evidence.
The judge also noted that she found witnesses from Google and Amazon credible in spite of
contradictory testimony from the witnesses themselves and from representatives of the publishers. Apple maintains that the witnesses demonstrated problems with their credibility, working as they do for two of Apple's rivals in the e-book and other markets.
Cote ruled that Apple had acted as a facilitator and played a "central role" in getting publishers to move to the "agency model" of pricing, where publishers set prices rather than distributors. She again sided with the prosecution in giving the damages trial the dates for discovery, affadavits and other procedural matters the timeframe requested by the DOJ. A full damages trial is scheduled for May 2014.
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