Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will be on hand for a deposition in the U.S. government’s lawsuit against the tech giant. The matter relates to accusations of the company’s involvement in price-fixing in the eBook market.
Reuters confirms that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan approved the Justice Department’s request to obligate Cook to testify for a period of up to four hours. Cook will now be put on the spot to discuss if and how Apple conspired with five publishers to spike e-book prices.
The government had argued that 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.
Apple initially protested the request for Cook’s involvement, saying that the CEO’s testimony would be “cumulative and duplicative” in the wake of testimony already provided by eleven other Apple executives.
Apple stands as the last remaining defendant in the year-old lawsuit. Pearson Plc’s Penguin Group, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group Inc and MacMillan have already settled.
