Cupertino, California

Apple Inc. (AAPL:US) is taking advantage of the dispute between Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) and Hachette Book Group by promoting and discounting pre-orders for the publisher's digital books.

There are 25 books featured for $9.99 in the Popular Pre-Orders category on Apple's iBooks store, all of which are published by Hachette. Authors on the list include Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling and mystery author James Patterson. Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS:US), another e-book competitor, is taking pre-orders for Rowling's new work, "The Silkworm," for $14.99 for its Nook tablet.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) faces as much as $840 million in state and consumer antitrust claims related to electronic-book deals with publishers that led to a U.S. lawsuit and court-ordered monitor. State attorneys general and consumers who sued the world's most valuable technology company over its e-book pricing are seeking $280 million in damages and want that amount tripled, a lawyer for them said in a filing yesterday with the federal judge in Manhattan who presided over the U.S. case against Apple.

The United States offered to ease the terms of a proposed civil injunction against Apple Inc for conspiring to raise ebook prices, but the company said the revised proposal is still designed to "inflict punishment" and must be rejected. At issue is how to ensure that Apple does not violate antitrust law, following a July 10 ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan that it had conspired with five major publishers to undermine pricing by rivals including Amazon.com Inc, which dominates the market for electronic books.

The federal judge who ruled that Apple Inc violated antitrust law by conspiring with five major publishers to raise prices of e-books has scheduled a May 2014 trial to determine damages, according to an order made public on Wednesday. Absent an earlier resolution, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan would be expected at the trial to consider whether Apple should pay damages that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Last month, Cote sided with the federal government and 33 U.S. states and territories in concluding that Apple conspired with the publishers to

Apple Inc. (AAPL) executives were prepared to abandon plans to enter the e-book business on the eve of the company’s 2010 debut of the iPad, Penguin Group USA Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Shanks testified in the U.S. government’s civil antitrust trial against Apple.

Shanks, called on the second day of the trial in Manhattan federal court, yesterday described his company’s decision to sign a deal known as an agency agreement for Apple to sell Penguin’s electronic books. He said Penguin signed on after initially resisting Apple’s pricing model.

Apple Inc. engaged in a horizontal price-fixing scheme with some of the U.S.’s largest publishers to violate antitrust laws by working “to strip retailers of pricing authority,” the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing.

The department’s Antitrust Division filed papers for a trial set to begin June 3 in federal court in Manhattan that included excerpts of e-mails and depositions of Apple executives including the company’s late founder, Steve Jobs, and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue and publishing executives.

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