Tim Cook ordered to attend the 7-hour deposition in Apple’s lawsuit against Epic Games

A judge presiding over the preparatory hearings in the Apple vs. Epic Games court case has ruled that Apple CEO Tim Cook must attend a seven-hour deposition to testify about how the company sees competition from the App Store. Gizmodo.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixon reportedly settled for the seven-hour deposition after Epic Games proposed eight hours to depose Cook and Apple asked for four. Apple’s concession came after its lawyers tried to cite the “apex doctrine,” which prevents the dismissal of a high-level corporate employee.

According to Judge Thomas S. Hixon, however, “this dispute is less than it seems.” Hixon writes that the doctrine of the apex “limits the duration of a deposition rather than forbids it altogether” and that, given the circumstances, the dispute is the question of whether Cook should be deposited for “four hours, eight hours or a certain intermediate duration “. Therefore, Hixon’s sentence that Cook should be dismissed for seven hours.

Judge Hixon also denied Apple’s request to cite internal documents related to “Epic Games” ‘s relationship with Samsung, which Apple alleged would show that its “App Store” practices are in largely consistent with other actors in the sector.

In other words, if Apple can show that Samsung made similar decisions in how to distribute “Epic Games” Fortnite, then could argue that the company’s antitrust argument is not convincing.

However, Hixon described the request as “peculiar deep immersion” in the agreements between the two companies, which “cannot serve as a substitute for a larger category of market participants.”

In another development, Hixon ordered Apple to make “best efforts” to produce internal payment processing documents, after criticizing the company as “frustrating and unsatisfactory” in its attempts to curb its release to Epic. .

In accordance with Law360, Representatives of Apple lawyers Jay Srinivasan of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher argued that the large size of the company meant the documents would take time to occur and claimed that iEpic Games‌ has not prioritized their requests.

“You’re not really offering a solution to this problem,” Judge Hixson told Srinivasan. “You just say, ‘No, we can’t.’ I find it frustrating and unsatisfactory.”

PEpic Games‌‌ in August added one Fortnite update that allowed customers to buy in-game currency directly from ‌Epic Games‌, bordering on purchases built into Apple’s app. This goes against Apple’s rules, and the move led Apple to withdraw the app from the App Store.

After that, icEpic Games‌‌ filed a lawsuit against Apple, and Apple eventually terminated deEpic Games‌‌’s developer account. Fortnite has not been available on iOS devices since August, and since Epic refuses to comply with the “App Store” rules, there is no way to return to the “App Store”.

The trial between Epic Games and Apple is scheduled to begin in May 2021.