- A judge ordered Tim Cook to sit for a 7-hour deposition as part of Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple.
- Epic sued Apple in August after its popular game “Fortnite” was launched on the App Store.
- An update to the “Fortnite” application bypassed the policy that allows Apple to achieve a 30% reduction in in-app purchases.
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A California judge ordered Apple CEO Tim Cook to make a 7-hour statement as part of Epic Games’ lawsuit against the phone maker.
According to court documents, “Fortnite” creator Epic Games originally wanted Cook to sit for eight hours on a deposition, a reduced period of time after Apple’s resistance, as Gizmodo first reported. Judge Thomas Hixon said that seven hours is the amount of time “a witness must suffer when he is deposited”. However, Hixon said more would be “unjustified,” according to the documents.
Cook’s testimony, while out of court, can be used when the case goes to trial, scheduled to start in May.
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Hixon also rejected Apple’s proposal to subpoena internal documents from rival Samsung, a request made as part of Apple’s mission to convince authorities that its business practices on the App Store are similar to those of other companies. Hixon said the subpoena was “a deep and peculiar dive”. Apple remains under regulatory scrutiny for its App Store policies as lawmakers question whether they are anti-competitive and violate antitrust laws.
Apple did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Apple’s heated relationship with Epic Games began in August, when Epic introduced its own payment service in the “Fortnite” game, bypassing Apple’s rules that stipulated that developers should use Apple’s own payment service. Apple and Google receive a 30% reduction in in-app purchases, according to their policies. Developers have long voiced their complaints against the practice, claiming that the 30% rate gives Apple an unfair advantage in the market, since the company’s applications themselves do not have to follow the same rules.
In response to Epic’s violation of Apple’s rules, Apple and Google expelled Epic from their app stores, preventing anyone from accessing “Fortnite” on their devices. Epic responded with what appeared to be a well-prepared video mocking one of Apple’s most famous ads. In it, Epic said that Apple holds the “App Store monopoly” and calls on the company for retaliating against Epic.
Epic attacked Apple and Google with lawsuits shortly thereafter. Facebook said in mid-December that it would support Epic Games in its legal battle against Apple, providing the company with “relevant information … about how Apple’s policies have negatively impacted Facebook and the people and companies that use our services.”
Facebook and Apple have a heated rivalry that goes back for years. The first is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that focuses on the rules of the App Store.
The Apple-Epic Games disaster began shortly after a hearing on July 29, when Cook appeared in Congress alongside executives from Google, Amazon and Facebook to address questions about antitrust issues.