Giving the verdict in the e-book price-fixing case on Wednesday, US district judge Denise Cote said that Apple had conspired with five bigwig US book publishers to raise e-book prices. The lawsuit was filed against Apple by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and 33 US states and territories in April 2012; and is one of the biggest anti-trust lawsuits ever brought by US federal authorities.

According to the DoJ's claims, Apple had connived with five book publishers - Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster - in the e-book price-fixing case, with the key aim of challenging online retail biggie Amazon's dominance in the ebook market; and increasing e-book prices above Amazon's preferred $9.99 price tag.

The verdict - which exposes Apple to still-to-be-determined damages - comes after Apple decided to go to trial despite the fact that the five defendant book publishers had already worked out a settlement with the DoJ.

Finding Apple guilty of e-book price-fixing conspiracy with book publishers, Judge Cote said that Apple had played a "central role" in the conspiracy which marked a violation of the country's antitrust law.

Noting that Apple had orchestrated the e-book price-fixing conspiracy, Judge Cote said in her 160-page ruling: "Understanding that no one publisher could risk acting alone in an attempt to take pricing power away from Amazon, Apple created a mechanism and environment that enabled them to act together in a matter of weeks to eliminate all retail price competition for their e-books."