Apple appeared brave enough to tell a US court that it is above the law. Despite the rumours that the company was furious with a court for appointing a monitor to make sure it didn’t set up price cartels, the experts didn't expect Apple to show complete contempt for the American legal system.

The company’s lawyers demanded that an attorney appointed by a court to monitor its antitrust compliance be removed because he had shown a personal bias against Apple by telling it what to do and trying to arrange meetings with Apple executives.

Apple had refused to allow him to do that and instead is asking the court to back its ruling. In the meantime, Apple’s attorney recently asked US District Judge Denise Cote to knock off a "wholly inappropriate declaration" filed by Bromwich in December 2013. In the declaration Bromwich dared to defend his work as a monitor against company’s complaint and detailed his unsuccessful efforts to gain Apple's cooperation for his assignment. The tech giant claimed that was heresy, because it implied that Apple either had no idea what it was doing, or was deliberately trying to get around the court order.

As you can understand, the relationship between Apple and the monitor quickly spiraled downward when it became clear that he was taking his job seriously. The company complained that he had aggressively sought to meet Apple’s top executives, even though his mandate called for him to assess Apple's antitrust policies 3 months after his appointment.

Finally, the company also cited Bromwich's proposed hourly payment rate of $1,100, which undoubtedly provided him incentive to run "as broad and intrusive investigation as possible”.

The court hasn’t replied yet. Apple has repeatedly indicated that it was legitimate to operate a price fixing cartel with publishers. However, the judge can tell the company that it has committed a crime against its clients, which is true.