In a controversial move, the U.S. government has slapped Apple and five publishing companies with an antitrust lawsuit. Charges of the lawsuit detail that mobile technology giant Apple and the five of the top six publishing names in U.S. colluded to fix prices that most consumers have been paying for downloadable digital books.

The move, which has been viewed by some analysts as smacking of fostering Amazon's dominance in the eBooks' retail industry, was submitted by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The lawsuit argues that the conspiracy by the defendants was an effort to thwart Amazon's popular pricing of $9.99 on eBooks.

The move could see the price on some electronic books come down significantly as Attorney General Eric Holder stated in a news conference on Wednesday that, "We believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles," owing to the collusion between Apple and the publishing entities.

The lawsuit further details that certain publishers were in cahoots with Apple to gag the retail price competition, which was done to the detriment of the consumers. According to the plaintiff, the conspiracy translated to a scenario where-in an eBook that would normally sell at $9.99 would go for a price between the range of $12.99 and $14.99.

While Apple failed to respond to requests for comment by USA Today, Amazon was quick to mention in a statement that "This is a big win for Kindle owners, and we look forward to being allowed to lower prices on more Kindle books."

The Justice Department's complaint cites an email of a publisher executive, who pointed out the need of colluding with Apple to force Amazon to raise the prices of its Kindle books. "We've always known that unless other publishers follow us, there's no chance of success in getting Amazon to change its pricing practices," the executive wrote in the email. "Without a critical mass behind us, Amazon won't 'negotiate,'" the email read.

Since its rise to dominance in the digital books industry in 2007, Amazon has been able to consistently set retail price for best sellers at an ungazetted standard of $9.99.

Some of the publishers named in the suit are Penguin and Macmillan. Some of these have merged voices with Apple pledging to fight the government charges. On the other end, three other publishers named in the price fixing scandal have agreed to settle. Publishers News Corp HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc as well as Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Hachette have agreed to settle and have committed to pay $51 million in restitution to buyers who have purchased the eBooks.

Forrester Research media analyst James McQuivey has echoed the sentiments that the eBooks prices were bound to drop anyway even without the intervention of the U.S. Justice department. The analyst states that online retailers have been experimenting with various discount schemes in a bid to stimulate eBooks sales.

The suit which, according to the USA Today, mentions a great deal of the late Apple's co founder and Technology legend Steve Jobs, details how Apple influenced publishers to adopt a agency pricing model that allowed them to up the price of eBooks to the range of $12.99 and $14.99 from which Apple would get a 30% cut.

"Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99," Jobs told some of the publishers, according to the Justice Department's complaint.

(reported by Gugulethu Nyoni, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)