Judge grills Justice Department over Assa Abloy Monitor Scope case (1)

A federal judge in the District of Columbia confronted the Justice Department over the department’s investigation into an antitrust settlement Assa Abloy ABclaiming that this goes beyond the terms of the contract and generates “outrageous costs.”

“There is no universe in which” Assa Abloy agreed to a five-year investigation with open-ended mandates for an independent monitor, Judge Ana C. Reyes said during a Tuesday hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The hearing came about a year after the Justice Department dropped its opposition to Assa Abloy’s $4.3 billion acquisition of Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc.’s computer hardware unit after reaching…