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Bloomberg / Scott Eells

Looks like Tim Cook will have to meet with the court appointed antitrust monitor in its ebook price fixing case after all, despite wanting to avoid the bother by dealing with him almost exclusively through lawyers.

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook and board member and former Vice President Al Gore, among others, should be subject to interviews from an antitrust monitor hired to evaluate the company following an e-books price-fixing case, according to a U.S. government filing Monday in Manhattan. That comes despite loud protest by the consumer electronics company, which apparently doesn't want the bother.

Michael Bromwich, a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP and a former inspector general at the U.S. Justice Department, should be allowed to meet with and interview top executives with the Cupertino-based company as such activities are "standard procedure in monitorships," the papers read, according to Bloomberg.

Bromwich has only been allowed to interview 11 people at Apple, seven who were lawyers rather than business people, and only one member of the board of directors and one executive, according to the article, despite being appointed by a judge in October to evaluate Apple's antitrust compliance training program following her July ruling that Apple was guilty e-book price fixing.

In November, the iPhone maker asserted in court papers that Bromwich overstepped his authority for immediate interviews and operated in an "unfettered and inappropriate manner."

But the court disagreed, and scolded Apple for not being more accommodating.

“Stripped of its blustery rhetoric and personal attacks, Apple’s motion is about its desire to shield its highest-level executives and board members from the perceived inconvenience of having to sit for these interviews,” Justice Department lawyers said in papers filed yesterday.

Company: AAPL