苹果电子书价格操纵案上诉请求被驳回

Apple has lost its final bid to overturn a judgment that it broke antitrust laws by conspiring to raise ebook prices, in its latest bruising encounter with the US judicial authorities.

苹果(Apple)推翻一项认定其合谋抬高电子书价格、从而违反竞争法律的判决的最后努力以失败告终。这是该公司与美国司法当局最新的激烈交锋。

The US Supreme Court rejected the company’s bid for an appeal against lower court rulings that it engaged in “marketplace vigilantism” against rival Amazon and “unreasonably restrained trade” by creating a “cartel” with publishers to control ebook prices.

美国最高法院(Supreme Court)驳回了苹果对下级法院裁决提起上诉的请求。下级法院认定，苹果参与了针对竞争对手亚马逊(Amazon)的“市场自警行为”，并通过与出版商创建“卡特尔”以操控电子书价格，“不合理地限制交易”。

The ruling comes as the company begins a long fight with the US justice department over whether it can be forced to help investigators break open an iPhone belonging to one of the killers in the San Bernardino terrorist shootings in December.

最高法院驳回上诉请求之际，苹果刚开始与美国司法部展开一场长期苦战，焦点是该公司是否可以被迫协助调查人员解锁去年12月圣贝纳迪诺恐怖枪击案一名凶手使用过的iPhone。

It is also a blow to Tim Cook, chief executive, who has called the case “bizarre” and defended deals struck by predecessor Steve Jobs and by Apple’s internet services head, Eddy Cue.

该裁决对苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克(Tim Cook)也是一个打击，他曾形容此案“离奇”，并为其前任史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)及苹果互联网服务负责人艾迪•库伊(Eddy Cue)所达成的协议辩护。

“We’ve done nothing wrong there and so we’re taking a very principled position on this,” Mr Cook said in a 2013 interview. “We’re not going to sign something that says we did something we didn’t do. So we’re going to fight.”

“我们在这方面没有任何过错，因此，我们对本案的立场非常坚持原则，”库克在2013年的一次采访中表示，“我们不会签署那些称我们做了我们根本没做的事情的文件。所以，我们将进行斗争。”

Apple must pay $400m in compensation to people who bought ebooks through its iBooks store, under the conditional settlement agreed in July 2014. Five publishers have already paid out $166m as part of their 2013 settlement.

根据2014年7月达成的有条件和解协议，苹果必须向通过iBooks商店购买电子书的消费者支付4亿美元的赔偿。作为2013年和解协议的一部分，5家出版商已经支付了1.66亿美元。

But the Department of Justice said the company and book publishers had engaged in “cynical misconduct” against the lower prices imposed by Amazon’s Kindle store. “Apple’s liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of ebooks is settled once and for all,” said Bill Baer, assistant attorney-general of the department’s antitrust division. “And consumers will be made whole.”

但美国司法部表示，苹果和图书出版商曾对亚马逊Kindle商店实行的较低价格发起“见利忘义的不当行为”。司法部反垄断部门助理总检察长比尔•贝尔(Bill Baer)表示：“苹果蓄意串通图书出版商抬高电子书价格，这一责任已被彻底认定。消费者将得到补偿。”

Customers who bought books at higher prices will be repaid in store credits.

曾以较高价格购买图书的用户将得到商店积分作为补偿。

The US government accused Apple of being the “ringleader” in a conspiracy with the world’s largest book publishers to raise ebook prices using its iPad, at a time when Amazon’s Kindle dominated the market. Whereas Amazon set ebook prices for the Kindle store, Apple introduced the “agency pricing” model with its iBooks system, allowing publishers to decide how much to charge.

美国政府指控称，在亚马逊的Kindle主导市场期间，苹果扮演“头目”角色，串通全球各大图书出版商利用iPad提高电子书价格。亚马逊设定其Kindle商店的电子书价格，而苹果用iBooks系统推出“代理定价”模式，让出版商决定定价。

The 2013 trial revealed that a string of emails were sent by Jobs and Mr Cue to publishing industry executives during their negotiations over iBooks.

2013年的审判显示，乔布斯和库伊曾向出版业高管发送了一连串电子邮件，其间他们正就iBooks与对方进行谈判。