Apple CEO Tim Cook and software engineering chief Craig Federighi will be summoned to testify in the ongoing Apple vs. Epic legal battle, a judge said this week.
The court filing, first shared by iMore, says that Apple had already agreed to make Cook a "document custodian." Apple wanted a condition that would limit Cook's deposition to four hours, but the court says that the condition is not appropriate as Epic will not be able to assess necessary deposition length until the full range of documents in the case are made available.
Apple wanted to have Erik Neuenschwander serve as a second document custodian instead of Craig Federighi, but the court has ruled that Federighi should be the one to testify in the dispute.
Apple also must provide extensive documentation and data related to an App Store study conducted by Analysis Group that compared App Store fees with fees from other platforms. Apple had not been planning to share those documents under an attorney work product privilege as Apple is also using Analysis Group as an expert consultant, but the judge said Apple has to provide the information to Epic.
Epic has complained that it is skeptical Apple has produced all relevant employee communications, as some emails included hyperlinks to cloud-based documents and Epic has to ask Apple to provide each of the linked documents. Epic wanted Apple to provide all hyperlink documentation, but the court sided with Apple on this point and said that Apple does not need to identify all hyperlinked documents because of the burden of the work. Apple does, however, have to provide hyperlinked documents for a "reasonable number of emails."
The Apple vs. Epic dispute will continue on with smaller matters such as document requests over the course of the next several months as the two companies prepare for their July 2021 hearing where they will battle it out in court.
