While, technically speaking,Epic Gamesis suing Apple, there are different companiesbeing roped into the legal battlefor various reasons.Facebook, for instance, is testifying on behalf of Epic Games. But that doesn’t mean the company is trying to be as helpful as it can be, at least not when it comes to Apple.
According to a report today fromMacRumors, based on a new discovery letter filed with the court recently, Facebook is trying to not hand over quite a few requested documents to Apple, which has requested a “limited set of documents” as part of the legal process. Apple believes these documents will help it form a better cross examination of Facebook executive Vivek Sharma, who is set to testify on Epic’s behalf.
Sharma will be testifying against Apple as it relates to the company’s restrictions within the App Store, app distribution in general on iOS, and more.
Apparently Facebook has handed over upwards of 1,600 documents related to Sharma at this point. However, the company believes it is “untimely, unfair, and unjustified request to redo fact discovery”, as Apple is apparently requesting now. The report indicates Apple feels there are over 16,000 documents related to Sharma that are relevant to the case.
Apple says Facebook has been using “delaying tactics”, and outright ignored requests for documentation up to this point. Apple has reportedly had multiple subpoenas served against Facebook dating back to December of last year. Apple has even met with Facebook in an attempt to narrow the document requests, but the social network has been so far unhelpful in this regard.
Interestingly, Apple apparently relented on the requests, but, at the same time, told Facebook it would stop further engagement in this regard if no Facebook executives testified in the upcoming trial. That did not pan out, though, as Epic Games itself has brought on Sharma in its witness list.
Despite Facebook’s knowledge of the time constraints in this action, it stalled for five days purportedly because “there is unavoidable technical processing time baked in to” investigating the burden of production, and finally admitted on March 29 it did not intend to produce more documents.
Facebook says the timing of Apple’s requests are “improper”, which apparently is one of the reasons the company is not listening to the requests.
If Apple believed that production was insufficient in any way, it had every opportunity to move to compel within 7 days of the close of discovery as required by the Court’s Rules. Apple chose not to, making this motion untimely. Instead, claiming surprise by Epic’s disclosure of Mr. Sharma as a trial witness–even though Epic’s complaint quoted him by name–Apple now demands that Facebook review and produce an enormous number of additional documents.
As of now, Apple is requesting the court force Facebook to comply with the requests.
The trial between Epic Games and Apple is set to start in May.
The timeline of events that brought us to today is below.
