litigation In 1997, Diamond's position in the comics industry, as "the sole source of most new comics products to comics specialty shops," ultimately saw the company become the subject of "an investigation by the U.S. Justice department for possible antitrust violations." The Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the comics industry and the alleged monopoly of Diamond Comics. The investigation was closed in November 2000, with no further action deemed necessary on the basis that, although Diamond enjoyed a monopoly in the North American comic book direct market distribution, they did not enjoy a monopoly on book distribution (books including non-comic books). Books and games In addition to having cornered the American comics distribution market, Diamond includes a number of subsidiary and affiliated companies. UK and European comics distribution is served by Diamond UK, based in Runcorn, England. On August 31, 2000, Diamond Comic Distributors acquired Alliance Game Distributors, North America's largest distributor of tabletop games. In 2002, Diamond consolidated its book trade into Diamond Book Distributors, marketing graphic novels and trade paperbacks to bookstores including Barnes & Noble, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com and Borders. 2020 coronavirus shutdown On March 23, 2020, Geppi announced that Diamond would stop sending comics to retail shops until further notice and had instructed printers not to send any new shipments to the company, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Issues of comics with United States release dates of April 1 or later, and with United Kingdom release dates of March 25 or later, would not be shipped until normal operations resumed. The shutdown took effect on April 1, 2020, and ended on May 20. DC Comics, Marvel Comics, IDW Publishing shift to other distributors On June 5, 2020, DC Comics announced that they would discontinue their distribution agreement with Diamond and that their books would now be distributed by Penguin Random House for their graphic novels and by UCS Comic Distributors (subsidiary of Midtown Comics) and Lunar Distribution (subsidiary of Discount Comic Book Service in Fort Wayne, Indiana). While acknowledging how huge the decision was, DC reiterated that the move was intended to fortify and increase the viability of the comic book direct market while also widening its fan base. On March 25, 2021, Marvel Comics announced they plan to shift their direct market distribution, for both monthly comics and graphic novels, to Penguin Random House. The change is scheduled to start on