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 The assessment came in the first report issued by the monitor,
Michael Bromwich, who found himself the subject of a bitter fight by
Apple to put his work on hold while it pursues an appeal.
In a 77-page report filed in U.S. District Court in New York,
Bromwich said the relationship between his team and Apple has
"significantly improved" since a federal appeals court in February
rejected the iPhone maker's bid to halt his work.
But Bromwich said while progress had been made in enhancing Apple's
antitrust compliance program as ordered by U.S. District Judge
Denise Cote, his team has only been able to speak with a limited
number of company employees.
The monitoring team has been unsuccessful in speaking with senior
members of Apple and "still lacks a significant amount of the
information it needs to fulfill its monitoring obligations," he
said.
"Based on the information Apple has provided to date, our view is
that Apple has made a promising start to enhancing its antitrust
compliance program, but that Apple still has much work to do,"
Bromwich wrote.
A lawyer for Apple declined comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S.
Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, was
appointed by Cote as monitor in October, three months after she
found the company liable in the civil antitrust case.
The judge had in July found that Apple played a "central role" in
scheming from late 2009 into early 2010 with five publishers to
raise e-book prices and impede competitors such as Amazon.com Inc.
The publishers previously agreed to settle with the Justice
Department and pay more than $166 million to resolve related states
attorneys general lawsuits and consumer class actions.
The publishers included Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group Inc,
News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Penguin Group (USA) Inc,
CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc and Verlagsgruppe Georg von
Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan.
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Apple had fought against Bromwich being able to carry on in his role
as monitor, contending he aggressively and improperly sought
interviews with top executives and broad access to company
documents.
But in February, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York
rejected Apple's bid to put the monitor on hold.
In the wake of that ruling, Bromwich said "there has been a shift of
tone in our relationship with Apple," and Apple has demonstrated "a
greater commitment to resolving lingering disputes."
The report said Apple has fulfilled a requirement by Cote to appoint
an internal antitrust compliance officer, hiring Deena Said, a
former in-house attorney at Hitachi Ltd.
But Bromwich said Apple needs to take further steps to achieve the
court's goals, including improving its record-keeping procedures and
provide more information related to training of its personnel.
Apple continues to challenge the monitor's activities at the
appellate level. It is also appealing the liability finding as it
faces a July 14 trial on damages. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say
they are entitled to $840 million.
The company sought permission late Monday to appeal a order by Cote
last month granting class certification in the consumer class
action.
The consolidated case is In Re: Electronic Books Antitrust
Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New
York, No. 11-md-02293.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York;
editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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