Court-appointed monitor says Apple's antitrust cooperation 'sharply declined' in recent months

A court-appointed monitor says Apple Inc.'s cooperation with efforts in a New York federal case to improve its compliance with antitrust laws took on an "adversarial tone" recently.

The monitor, Michael Bromwich, says in a report made public Thursday that Apple's cooperation with the monitoring team "sharply declined" this year.

Bromwich was appointed to review the Cupertino, California company's antitrust compliance policies and training after a judge concluded Apple violated antitrust laws when it entered the electronic book market in 2010.

In December, the technology giant got some sympathy from federal appeals judges deciding whether to reverse the judge's antitrust finding that Apple colluded with e-book publishers to raise prices and bust Amazon.com's control of the market.

A lawyer for Apple did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.