Several tech companies are pushing back against subpoenas issued by Apple and the DOJ in their ongoing antitrust battle. Here are the details.
A bit of background
In March 2024, the Department of Justice and 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of restricting competition, limiting interoperability with rival products, and making it harder for consumers to switch to competing devices. Apple denies these allegations.
Since then, despite recent reports of settlement talks happening behind the scenes, the two sides have clashed repeatedly over discovery, which is the pretrial process through which both sides exchange evidence relevant to the case.
As part of its effort to refute the DOJ’s arguments, Apple has subpoenaed several third-party companies and organizations, seeking documents and information relevant to its defense. That includes Epic Games, Samsung Electronics America, Meta, Oura, Garmin, Playco, Ultrahuman, PayPal, Match Group, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance, among others.
The DOJ and plaintiff states, in turn, have issued their own subpoenas, including to Roblox, Epic Games, Snap, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance, seeking evidence to support their allegations against Apple.
Google, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and Capital One are also named in legal documents.
In essence, both sides are trying to use data from Apple’s competitors and companies with which it has commercial relationships to establish how its policies affect competition, and whether those policies are justified or constitute anticompetitive behavior.
Short subheading
Over the past couple of days, multiple letters submitted to the court reveal disagreements over the scope of the subpoenas, the information being requested, and whether the companies should be required to produce certain documents.
<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68362334/591/united-states-of-america-v-apple-inc/" rel="nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Epic Games, for instance, argues that Apple’s requests for documents from three previous lawsuits (Epic v. Apple in the US, Epic v. Apple in Australia, and Epic v. Google in the US), along with extensive searches of internal files belonging to three senior executives, including its CEO, would be disproportionately burdensome.
Still, the company has offered to produce several categories of information, including Fortnite user and revenue data, contracts with Google and Samsung, and records relating to Apple’s Core Technology Fee.
Samsung, in turn, has agreed to search documents belonging to two executives, which the company says have yielded nearly 900,000 documents matching the agreed-upon search terms.
However, Apple wants to expand the searches to six additional executives, including Samsung Electronics America’s current and former CEOs, and obtain deposition transcripts from Samsung executives who testified in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google.
The companies also disagree over whether Samsung Electronics America should be required to produce documents held by its South Korean parent company, which is a dispute we covered here before.
As for Oura, the company is pushing back on several fronts, including whether Apple should reimburse it for reviewing more than 32,000 additional documents, and whether it may withhold or redact certain information it considers trade secrets.
Garmin has raised similar objections to Apple’s requests for confidential financial and strategic information.
Roblox, which is the only company among these recent filings subpoenaed by the DOJ and plaintiff states rather than Apple or other plaintiffs, is disputing requests for information about its relationship with Apple and how Apple’s App Store policies are applied. The government, meanwhile, argues that the documents could help establish whether Apple consistently applies its App Store Guidelines to developers.
Another interesting dispute involves Japan-based instant gaming company Playco, which is resisting Apple’s requests for documents concerning its efforts to influence App Store policies, including lobbying activities.
Playco argues that producing these materials would violate its First Amendment rights, citing a 2021 court decision involving similar requests Apple made to Match Group.
Several of the companies have also requested until November 11 to continue negotiations before their disputes are formally declared at an impasse, potentially avoiding further court intervention.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of another dispute between Apple and the DOJ involving the company’s efforts to obtain documents from 14 federal agencies.
Although a special master has twice sided with Apple, the order remains on holdwhile the court considers the government’s appeal.
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