New York - Apple deserves a five-year ban from entering anticompetitive e-book distribution contracts and should also end its business arrangements with five major publishers with which it conspired to raise e-book prices, federal and state regulators said on Friday.
The US department of justice and 33 US states and territories proposed those changes and others after a federal judge last month found in a civil antitrust case that Apple conspired with the publishers to raise e-book prices.
Regulators accused Apple of conspiring to undercut Amazon.com's e-book dominance, causing some e-book prices to rise to $12.99 or $14.99 from the $9.99 that the online retailer had been charging.
US district judge Denise Cote ruled that Apple had played a "central role" in a conspiracy to eliminate retail price competition and raise e-book prices.
A hearing to discuss remedies is scheduled for August 9. Cote has said she also plans to hold a trial on damages.