Publishers have raised an objection against the penalties the U.S. government wants to impose on Apple, saying it will hurt their business rather than the electronics giant.

Apple Inc. and five publishing houses - Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster were accused of fixing e-books prices. While all the five publishing houses have come to a settlement with the Department of Justice, Apple was the last company left in the case and went into trial, June 3.

After the ruling, the publishers submitted a paper to the court Wednesday saying that the government's plans to ban Apple from engaging in agency agreements for five years would not affect Apple's pricing strategies but instead restrict the agencies from minting money.

"Rather, under the guise of punishing Apple, they effectively punish the settling defendants by prohibiting agreements with Apple using an agency model," lawyers for the publishers said.

According to the publishers, the proposed remedy conflicts with consent decrees that were mutually agreed upon when the cases were being settled. The decree permitted publishers to enter into agency deals with e-book retailers with some limitations.

The court papers were submitted on behalf of HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Hachette Book Group Inc., Simon & Schuster Inc., Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC and Penguin Random House LLC.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona confirmed that the proposed settlement with Apple would prohibit the company from entering into deals that limit retail price competition during a defined period.

"The proposed relief does not modify the terms of the settlements we reached with the publisher defendants," she said.