Apple forced customers to restore iPod devices in order to delete competitors’ music, a California court has heard.

During a trial on whether or not Apple’s digital rights policies drove up the price of iPods, a lawyer alleged that the technology giant tricked customers into removing songs downloaded from competing music providers to iTunes.  

Patrick Coughlin, the attorney making the allegations, said Apple sent its customers a “restore error” message when their devices were synching, forcing iPod owners to wipe clean their competitors’ music from the memory in order to push iTunes sales.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple says the reason competitors’ music was deleted from the popular MP3-player was a concern over hacking, and that wiping the device was designed to keep it safe from malware.

Mr Coughlin told the court that Apple had deliberately rigged the iPod’s restore process so that Apple never informed users what the issue was, meaning they wouldn’t figure out what was going on.

Apple’s security director Augustin Farrugia said in his testimony: “We don’t need to give users too much information… We don’t want to confuse users.”

The verdict in the case is pending.