Following reports the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division was probing practices of Apple (AAPL) and its publishing partners in e-book sales, the Department today filed suit against the company, along with co-defendants Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, as reported by The Wall Street Journal‘s Chad Bray and Brent Kendall, who offer a link to the court filing.

The suit alleges Apple and the publishers “reached an agreement where retail price competition would cease, retail e-books prices would increase significantly and Apple would be guarantee a 30% “commission” on each e-book sold,” Bray and Kendall write. The authors write that some defendants are expected to settle separately with the DoJ as soon as today.

Another report by Bloomberg‘s Bob Van Voris this morning says Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, respectively owned by CBS (CBS) and News Corp. (NWS), are expected to have already settled, citing two anonymous sources.

Apple shares are up $5.05, or 0.8%, at $633.69.

Full disclosure: News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones, and, hence, Barrons.com, the publisher of this blog.

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