NEW YORK — Apple executive Eddy Cue on Thursday vigorously argued before a federal judge that the company did not try to hurt tech rivals by illegally pushing the publishing industry to adopt an anti-competitive e-books price program.
Instead Cue, the head of content and iTunes for Apple, portrayed the firm as singularly focused on its own foray into the e-books market that was dominated by rival Amazon.
Apple customers got “great prices, great selection, at a better bookstore,” Cue said in response to Justice Department prosecutors at the Manhattan U.S. District Court.
Cue’s appearance in the packed courtroom — he wore a gray suit and burgundy tie — stood in stark contrast to his casual dress and glitzy presentation to a crowd of enthusiastic Apple software developers in San Francisco this week.
By midday Thursday, Cue had responded to 90 minutes of questions by prosecutors. Defense lawyers will question him in the afternoon.
As chief negotiator for Apple in all its content deals with record labels, book publishers and movie studios, Cue is a central witness in the Justice Departments’s antitrust lawsuit. Much of the evidence presented by the department centered on comments and e-mails between him and the company’s late founder, Steve Jobs.
In a surprise, prosecutors introduced a Feb 10, 2010, e-mail from Jobs to Cue aimed at proving Jobs’s knowledge of a scheme to fix prices and force Amazon to lift its e-book prices.
Cue said he never received the e-mail, which defense lawyers said was a draft. Cue said he saw it for the first time this week.
Cue portrayed his interactions with publishers as typical business negotiations.
He was asked whether in the six weeks of negotiations with publishing executives in December 2009 and January 2010 he ever spoken about getting publishers to change their price plans with Amazon.
Cue repeatedly rejected the notion.
“No, we talked about moving Apple,” he said.
Apple’s agency pricing allowed publishers to have far more control over e-books prices. Justice Department attorneys alleged in their suit that Apple and five major publishers colluded to raise prices under that new system to as much as $14.99. The publishers had been frustrated with Amazon’s program, which allowed the retailer to generally cap prices at $9.99.
Instead Cue, the head of content and iTunes for Apple, portrayed the firm as singularly focused on its own foray into the e-books market that was dominated by rival Amazon.
Apple customers got “great prices, great selection, at a better bookstore,” Cue said in response to Justice Department prosecutors at the Manhattan U.S. District Court.
Cue’s appearance in the packed courtroom — he wore a gray suit and burgundy tie — stood in stark contrast to his casual dress and glitzy presentation to a crowd of enthusiastic Apple software developers in San Francisco this week.
By midday Thursday, Cue had responded to 90 minutes of questions by prosecutors. Defense lawyers will question him in the afternoon.
As chief negotiator for Apple in all its content deals with record labels, book publishers and movie studios, Cue is a central witness in the Justice Departments’s antitrust lawsuit. Much of the evidence presented by the department centered on comments and e-mails between him and the company’s late founder, Steve Jobs.
In a surprise, prosecutors introduced a Feb 10, 2010, e-mail from Jobs to Cue aimed at proving Jobs’s knowledge of a scheme to fix prices and force Amazon to lift its e-book prices.
Cue said he never received the e-mail, which defense lawyers said was a draft. Cue said he saw it for the first time this week.
Cue portrayed his interactions with publishers as typical business negotiations.
He was asked whether in the six weeks of negotiations with publishing executives in December 2009 and January 2010 he ever spoken about getting publishers to change their price plans with Amazon.
Cue repeatedly rejected the notion.
“No, we talked about moving Apple,” he said.
Apple’s agency pricing allowed publishers to have far more control over e-books prices. Justice Department attorneys alleged in their suit that Apple and five major publishers colluded to raise prices under that new system to as much as $14.99. The publishers had been frustrated with Amazon’s program, which allowed the retailer to generally cap prices at $9.99.