The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) argued it was likely Cook had information about the company’s entry into the e-books market, and private conversations with his predecessor, Steve Jobs, relating to the matter.
Last year, the DOJ sued Apple and other major book publishers for conspiring to raise prices of e-books.Apple opposed the government’s motion to compel a deposition from Cook and said the government was ignoring the legal standards that Cook had no unique personal knowledge of the relevant facts.
The company stated the lower-level executives could provide the same information and the DOJ had not yet exhausted alternative information sources.
Five other book publishers in the lawsuit include CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck and Penguin.
Apart from Apple, all five publishers have already settled the dispute with the department.
The lawsuit was originally filed in April 2012 in US District Court in New York.
