A senior executive at the retailer Amazon.com has testified that five major publishers discriminated against his company because it was setting prices of electronic books too low.
Russell Grandinetti, vice-president for Kindle content, said publishers gave him an "ultimatum" in 2010 to let them set prices of e-books sold on its website or they would withhold newly released books from the company's digital library until months after the hardcover editions appeared on shelves.
Grandinetti gave the testimony on Wednesday - the third day of an antitrust trial in Manhattan federal court.
The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple and five major US publishers in April 2012, accusing them of conspiring to fix prices for e-books.
The publishers all settled before trial and together paid $164m to resolve parallel claims by states attorney general that are also being asserted at trial. Apple, which became a Kindle rival when it launched the iPad in 2010, did not settle.
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