A judge has ordered Apple to produce Tim Cook and Craig Federighi to testify for the Apple versus Epic lawsuit, and they must produce required documents before the next hearing.
The Apple versus Epic lawsuit continues as publicly filed court documents tell us a bit more about the upcoming trial. Epic wants Apple to produce extensive documentation surrounding the App Store and its operations, but there has been some deliberation as to how extensive this data needs to be, and who will present it.
The document filed states that Apple will have a large burden placed on them to gather much of what Epic is asking for. The court sides with Apple here stating that Epic need not ask for more amplifying data unless absolutely necessary.
The most important part of the court filing is who’s going to be made available to represent Apple. Epic has requested that Tim Cook and Craig Federighi be made available for the hearing.
Apple says that Tim Cook will be available, but requests his deposition be limited to four hours. Apple also requested that Eric Neuenshwander, who runs the App Store and reports to Craig Federighi, be present instead.
The judge denied both requests, stating that Tim Cook’s time limitations will not be determined until Epic receive all the proper documents from Apple. The request for Neuenshwander was also denied, with the judge reasoning that if Epic sees Federighi’s leadership position over all iOS as more significant, then it is on Epic if they are wrong about Neuenshwander’s significance.
The next deadline for court filings is January 6, 2021 to discuss expert declarations, with a hearing on January 8. This is just another small step forward as we await the next hearing set for July 2021.
