On Wednesday, five of the biggest publishers in the US objected to the constraints sought by the government against Apple Inc for unlawfully conspiring to raise the prices of e-books.

The publishers filed a motion in the US District Court of Manhattan. They said the verdict on the case would limit Apple's capability to offer discounts for the books. The publishers added that the provision suggested by the US Justice Department would punish them. The publishers that conspired with Apple were supposed to pay US$160 million to help the consumers.

"Despite achieving their stated goal of returning price competition, plaintiffs now seek to improperly impose additional, unwarranted restrictions on the settling defendants, thereby depriving each publisher of the benefit of its bargain with plaintiffs," the publishers noted.

Apple was accused by the Justice Department of conspiring with the publishers to undercut the e-book dominance of Amazon.com Inc. This caused a few of the e-book prices to increase to US$12.99 or US$14.99 from the US$9.99 cost that online retailers were charged. Amazon once owned 90% of the whole market share.