Bangalore: In a major setback to Apple’s strategy for selling e-books online, a federal judge found Apple guilty of conspiring with five major publishers to raise e-book prices, reports Reuters.

The U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan found that Apple indeed played a central role in a conspiracy with the publishers to eliminate retail price completion and raise e-book prices. The verdict can expose the iPhone maker to substantial damages. And the five publishers, Apple conspired with, have previously been settled.

Apple was alleged of the conspiracy to undercut Amazon’s dominance in the e-book market, causing some e-book prices to rise to $12.99 or $14.99 from $9.99 that the online retailers charged.

“Apple chose to join forces with the publisher defendants to raise e-book prices and equipped them with the means to do so,” Cote said in a 159-page decision. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did.”

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