Judge Denies Apple's Document Deadline Extension in Epic Games Dispute
A federal judge rejects Apple's request for more time to produce over 1.3 million App Store documents, calling the last-minute delay attempt "bad behavior." Apple still faces a Monday deadline to hand over the files as part of Epic Games' bad-faith compliance challenge.
A federal judge denies Apple's request for a two-week extension to produce documents in its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games. Judge Thomas S. Hixson labels Apple's last-minute filing as "bad behavior," noting that the company surprisingly announces the delay just four days before the substantial completion deadline despite likely knowing the document count for weeks.
The dispute centers around Apple's compliance with a previous court order to loosen its App Store rules. While Apple now allows developers to use outside payment methods, the company still collects a reduced commission, prompting Epic to accuse Apple of acting in bad faith. In August, a judge ordered Apple to hand over all internal documents related to the creation of these new rules.
Apple claims that Epic's search terms unexpectedly surfaced more than 1.3 million documents, making the original Monday, September 30 deadline impossible to meet. However, Judge Hixson dismisses this excuse, stating that a company with Apple's "nearly infinite resources" could probably review that many documents in a single weekend and leaves the firm to figure out how to comply on time.