Newsletter
Apple must turn over all decision-making documents to the judge presiding over its anti-trust case against Epic. That’s according to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers, who gave the order this week. Apple’s case against Epic originally started back in 2020, when Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple for allegedly violating anti-trust laws. Epic’s claims were that Apple was forcing developers to use proprietary tools for app distribution and development.
Over the course of the case, Rodgers ruled that Apple would need to come up with a revised set of App Store policies to account for this. Now Rodgers is asking for all documents that relate to the decision-making. Presumably so she can see if the company has violated that injunction.
If she finds anything irregular, it could sway her final decision on the ruling. However, it’ll be unclear what happens until those documents have been looked over.
Judge orders Apple to turn over “all documents” in the Epic case pertaining to decision-making
Apple appears to have been left little room for error here. As Judge Gonzalez Rodgers makes it pretty clear what she’s looking for. As Courthouse News Service notes, Rodgers states that she wants to see “all of Apple’s documents relative to its decision-making process with respect to the issues in front of the court.” Rodgers isn’t leaving Apple with any wiggle room either. “All of them. If there is a concern, then be overly broad,” Rodgers said.
With this request, there should be no room for Apple to accidentally leave anything out that might be relevant to this particular matter in the case. Rodgers doesn’t mention what her decision might be if she finds that Apple violated the injunction. However, if that ends up being the case, her final decision obviously won’t be in Apple’s favor.
Back in March, Epic filed its new lawsuit against Apple over the commission fees that Apple had still planned to take. It then made claims a month later that Apple violated the court order with these fees.
A final decision should be made by the middle of next week
While it isn’t clear what the outcome will be, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers might have a decision made by next week. She says that all parties will return to court by Next Tuesday to discuss the matter. At this point, she may end up giving her final decision on the ruling.