US: Google testimony backfires on DOJ in big way

Testimony given by a Google executive against Apple Inc., brought by the US Department of Justice to aid its case against the tech giant accused of fixing e-books prices, has backfired on the DOJ in a major way. According to reports, attorneys for Apple discredited the executive’s testimony so strongly that the judge had to step in. Google director of strategic partnerships Thomas Turvey was brought to the stand with the intention of testifying that he had been told direction from the five e-books publishers investigated by the DOJ that Apple Inc. had required them to switch to the agency pricing model. But as Apple’s lead attorney Orin Snyder began to question Turvey, the witness’s testimony – and credibility – quickly fell apart. Turvey reportedly stated that the publisher representatives spoke with him in 2010; by the end of Snyder’s questioning, however, Turvey’s testimony only amounted to a possibility of those representatives talking to one of Turvey’s colleagues and could not recall a single name of those representatives who allegedly told him of Apple’s pricing policies. Further, Turvey acknowledged that his lawyer played a part in helping him to draft the statement filed with the court about his testimony.