Will This Lawsuit Drag Apple’s CEO into Court?

Judge Denise Cote, who is overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple (in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, has ordered a telephone conference call scheduled for March 13 to take a deposition from Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice requested Judge Cote’s “assistance in settling a discovery dispute” with Apple regarding Tim Cook’s deposition in a letter on March 6.

The lawsuit, which contends that Apple violated U.S. antitrust laws when it conspired with publishers to price-fix e-books, was originally filed by the DoJ on April 11, 2012. In the lawsuit, the DoJ alleges that the conspiracy started as a way to challenge Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) dominance of the e-book market through its popular Kindle device and its strategy of selling newly released e-books for $9.99.

The DoJ’s complaint states that, “Publishers saw the rise in e-books, and particularly Amazon’s price discounting, as a substantial challenge to their traditional business model.”