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)夺权一项确认其合谋压低电子书价格、从而违背竞争法律的裁决的最后希望以告终收场。这是该公司与美国司法当局近期的白热化交锋。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)上诉了苹果对下级法院判决驳回裁决的催促。

下级法院确认，苹果参予了针对竞争对手亚马逊(Amazon)的“市场自警不道德”，并通过与出版商创立“卡特尔”以操纵电子书价格，“不合理地容许交易”。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. 最高法院驳回上诉催促之际，苹果刚开始与美国司法部进行一场长年激战，焦点是该公司否可以不得不帮助调查人员关卡去年12月圣贝纳迪诺可怕枪击案一名凶手用于过的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. 该判决对苹果首席执行官蒂姆库克(Tim Cook)也是一个压制，他曾形容此案“诡异”，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)所达成协议的协议申辩。

“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.” “我们在这方面没任何罪过，因此，我们对本案的立场十分坚持原则，”库克在2013年的一次专访中回应，“我们会签订那些称之为我们做到了我们显然没做的事情的文件。所以，我们将展开斗争。

” 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月达成协议的有条件妥协协议，苹果必需向通过iBooks商店出售电子书的消费者缴纳4亿美元的赔偿金。作为2013年妥协协议的一部分，5家出版商早已缴纳了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.” 但美国司法部回应，苹果和图书出版商曾对亚马逊Kindle商店实施的较低价格发动“见利忘义的失当不道德”。司法部反垄断部门助理总检察长比尔贝尔(Bill Baer)回应：“苹果故意串通图书出版商压低电子书价格，这一责任已被完全确认。消费者将获得补偿。” Customers who bought books at higher prices will be repaid in store credits. 曾以较高价格出售图书的用户将获得商店分数作为补偿。

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. 美国政府指控称之为，在亚马逊的Kindle主导市场期间，苹果扮演着“头目”角色，串通全球各大图书出版商利用iPad提升电子书价格。亚马逊原作其Kindle商店的电子书价格，而苹果用iBooks系统发售“代理定价”模式，让出版商要求定价。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年的审判表明，乔布斯和库伊曾向出版业高管发送到了一连串电子邮件，其间他们于是以就iBooks与对方进行谈判。

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