CUPERTINO (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Department of Justice is satisfied that tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) has put in place meaningful reforms to comply with antitrust laws despite the company having fought with a monitor appointed to oversee its sale of electronic books, Bloomberg reported Monday.
The Justice Department has reportedly recommended that the monitoring need not be extended as Apple has implemented meaningful antitrust policies, procedures and training programs that were lacking before.
However, the Justice Department noted that Apple did not adopt a cooperative relationship with the monitor, Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general.
In June, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that Apple colluded with publishers to raise the prices of e-books. The ruling brought consumers one step closer to a proposed $450 million settlement with Apple for its role in the e-book price-fixing scheme with five of the nation's largest publishing companies.
The class of consumers alleged that Apple illegally colluded to manipulate the e-book market by artificially raising the price of e-books, lowering competition and charging consumers higher prices.
In July 2013, after a trial involving the Department of Justice and state attorneys general, Judge Cote of the District Court for the Southern District of New York found Apple guilty of violating both federal and state antitrust laws.
AAPL closed Monday's trading at $111.60, down $0.52 or 0.46 percent on a volume of 30.47 million shares. However, in after-hours, the stock added $0.07 or 0.06 percent to $111.67.
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