A group of Chinese authors has sued Apple Inc for 11.9 million yuan ($1.9 million) in compensation for allegedly providing copyright-infringing books for download through its online store, Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported.

The group behind the lawsuit has been lobbying Apple for months to remove copyright-infringing books from its App Store.

The group of nine authors, under the mantle of the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), sued Apple in Beijing's No. 2 Intermediate People's Court for copyright infringement of 37 works, Caixin reported on Friday.

Over the years, the lobby group has waged similar high-profile battles with Baidu Inc and Google Inc over their online book products.

The CWWCS said no one was available to comment for this article. An Apple spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. Calls to the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court were not answered. ($1 = 6.3095 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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