While Apple’s legal battle with Epic Games continues, a judge in the case made two decisions hostile to Apple. First, Apple CEO Tim Cook was ordered to sit down for a 7-hour deposition on the case. The judge also rejected Apple’s attempt to subpoena Samsung as part of the case.
As reported by Gizmodo, court documents reveal that Epic Games originally wanted to depose Cook for eight hours. Apple then cited the summit doctrine, which can prevent top executives from being ousted before granting four hours.
The judge of the case, however, ruled that Cook could be deposed by Epic Games for seven hours:
According to Judge Thomas S. Hixon, however, “this dispute is less than it appears”. Hixon writes that the apex doctrine “limits the length of a deposition, rather than barring it altogether”, and that under the circumstances, the dispute is a question of whether Cook should be deposed for “four hours, eight hours or some length of time in between. ”Consequently, Hixon’s decision that Cook should be deposed for seven hours.
As for where Hixon got seven hours from, the judge writes that it is the standard rule for “how long a witness must suffer being deposed”. Hixon also argues that the apex doctrine focuses on whether a witness has “unique, non-repetitive knowledge of the facts of the case”. When it comes to the policies of the Apple app store – which are at the heart of this seemingly endless case against Epic – Hixon writes “there is really no one like the Apple CEO who can testify about how Apple sees competition in these various markets that are essential to your business model. “
Second, Judge Hixon denied Apple’s request to subpoena Samsung’s internal documents. Apple lobbied to subpoena Samsung’s internal communications to help prove that the App Store’s policies are similar to those of other companies, but Hixon referred to this as “a peculiar deep dive” in the relationship between Samsung and Epic.
For more context, the relationship between Epic and Samsung flourished amid Epic’s disputes with Apple and Google. Epic says that while you can no longer get Fortnite from the App Store or Play Store, it is still available from the Galaxy Store.
As a reminder, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store because Epic Games implemented its own payment processing system for in-app purchases that bypassed the Apple in-app purchase system. The two companies are currently in a legal battle, with a trial scheduled for later this year in the United States.
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