The U.S Department of Justice submitted to the court, a plan for Apple to cut its existing ties to the publishers and make it easier for its rivals to sell books on its platforms.

Apple Inc. and five publishing houses - Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster were accused of fixing prices of e-books. While all five publishing houses have come to a settlement with the DOJ, Apple was the last company left in the case and went into trial, June 3. Penguin settled its case for $75m. Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster created a $69m fund for refunds to consumers, while Macmillan settled for $26m.

Manhattan Judge, Denise Cote found Apple guilty of conspiring with the publishers to fix prices of eBooks and has accused the iPad company of conspiring to "restrain trade." On Friday, the U.S Department of Justice submitted to the court, a plan for Apple to cut its existing ties to the publishers and to make it easier for its rivals to sell books on its platforms.

"Under the department's proposed order, Apple's illegal conduct will cease and Apple and its senior executives will be prevented from conspiring to thwart competition in the future," assistant attorney general Bill Baer said.

Under the existing settlements, the publishers agreed to end any agreements they have with retailers like Apple to prevent them from discounting titles sold through their platforms.

Through its devices and software, Apple allows readers to buy electronic versions of books online and download them to a personal digital library.

In this it competes with other retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which sell e-books through online "apps" on mobile devices, using operating systems such as Microsoft's Windows or Google's Android.

This new settlement would oblige Apple to allow retailers to "provide links from their e-book apps to their e-bookstores, allowing customers who purchase and read e-books on their iPads and iPhones easily to compare Apple's prices with those of its competitors."