A US judge on Friday rejected an Apple request to suspend her ruling that found Apple in violation of antitrust laws, exposing the tech company to potentially onerous restrictions on its agreements with book publishers, dpa reported.
Judge Denise Cote had found the company guilty last month of colluding with the five largest publishers to fix the prices of books sold through iTunes in a bid to challenge the low prices set by industry leader Amazon.com.
Apple had been hoping that a suspension of the verdict would allow it time to appeal before the imposition of penalties.
The Department of Justice is pressing the court to order Apple to terminate the existing contracts with the publishing houses and to bar any similar deals for five years. The proposal would also cover Apple's contracts with providers of video, movies, television and music "that are likely to increase the prices at which Apple's competitors may sell that content."