The United States government's antitrust case against Apple iBooks practices has shined a new light on compliance monitors and how they can potentially interfere with business operations of respective companies they are appointed to.

The debate comes amid controversy over a court-appointed compliance officer assigned to Apple for antitrust monitorship. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote had appointed an attorney to investigate and review Apple's antitrust compliance policies after she ruled in July that the company had colluded with five book publishers to intentionally spike e-book prices.

Cote had appointed Michael Bromwich for the job, but Apple and Bromwich have been at loggerheads for months, sparring from the “scope of his authority to cost,” one of the company's chief complaints.