[telecom] Court Rejects Apple Appeal in E-Book Case

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Court Rejects Apple Appeal in E-Book Case

By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN FEBRUARY 10, 2014

The court-appointed monitor in the Apple e-book price-fixing case can get back to work.

A federal appellate court on Monday rejected Apple's request to stay the monitor, Michael R. Bromwich, a Washington lawyer, from doing any more work pending the outcome of its challenge to a judge's earlier order appointing the monitor in the first place.

But a one-page ruling from the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit did put some limits on how far Mr. Bromwich can go in demanding documents and interviews with Apple employees.

The ruling said that the monitor's job was to make sure the company was putting in place procedures to comply with federal antitrust laws and that Apple executives and board members "are being instructed on what those compliance policies mean and how they work." Yet, the order went on to say the monitor was not supposed to "investigate whether such personnel were in fact complying with the antitrust or other laws."

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