Judge Thomas S. Hixson has rejected Apple’s last-minute request to delay its deadline in a legal dispute with Epic Games, according to The Verge.
Apple had been ordered to produce a large number of documents related to its App Store rule changes by Monday, September 30. Just a few days before the deadline, Apple asked for an extra two weeks to complete the task, explaining that the number of documents to be reviewed had unexpectedly increased from 650,000 to over 1.3 million.
However, Judge Hixson denied the request, calling it “bad behavior” and stating that Apple should have been aware of the larger number of documents much earlier.
The legal conflict between Apple and Epic Games began when Epic challenged Apple’s App Store rules, which required developers to use Apple’s in-app payment system and pay a commission. Although Apple largely won the case in U.S. district court, it was ordered to relax some of its rules, allowing developers more freedom to handle payments outside of Apple’s system. In response, Apple made changes to its App Store policies in January 2024, but Epic accused Apple of not fully complying, calling it “bad faith” since Apple still collects a smaller commission on those payments.
In August, Apple was ordered to hand over documents showing how it came to its new App Store rules. On Thursday, in a status report with the court, Apple explained that the search terms provided by Epic surfaced more than twice the expected number of documents, which is why they requested more time to complete the review. But Judge Hixson criticized the timing of the request, which came just four days before the deadline, writing that it “hardly creates the impression that Apple is behaving responsibly.”
Hixson further argued that Apple has “nearly infinite resources” and should have been able to meet the original deadline. He suggested that Apple could have reviewed over 1.3 million documents much faster, even stating that the company “could probably review that many documents in a weekend,” TechCrunch noted
The judge’s decision raises concerns about Apple’s compliance with the court’s orders, suggesting that the company might not have fully cooperated in its previous reports. Despite Apple’s request, the original deadline remains, and the company must produce the documents by September 30.
Featured Image courtesy of Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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