It is anticipated that Apple will produce a wealth of information by Monday, and the company has just requested additional time.
Apple attempted to wriggle out of releasing a trove of documents by Monday as it was required to do in its ongoing battle with Epic, but Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson is not going to let them get away with it. Apple’s attempt was made at the very last minute. The deadline for the company to disclose documents relating to the modifications it made to its App Store guidelines this year was set for September 30. This was the company’s attempt to satisfy an injunction, and it was handed to the company at the beginning of August. Apple had informed the court that the process would require reviewing approximately 650,000 documents; but, in a status update on Thursday, the company stated that the number had increased to over 1.3 million, and it requested an extension of two weeks. The request was refused by Hixson on Friday in a sharply worded decision that was discovered by The Verge. Hixson referred to Apple’s action as “bad behavior.”
The problem of Apple’s documents exceeding its prior estimate has never before been brought up in court, according to the judge, who highlighted that Apple and Epic have been providing joint status updates to the court every two weeks. During the course of the order, Hixson stated that Apple would have been aware of this information several weeks ago. The fact that Apple only became aware of this information in the two weeks that followed the most recent status report is simply incomprehensible. According to the judge, the request raises additional concerns, with the judge calling into question the quality of Apple’s reports as well as the company’s intentions on complying in a timely manner. According to Hixson, Apple possesses “nearly infinite resources” that it might have utilized in order to complete the assignment within the limited amount of time that was available.
This is a classic example of moral hazard, as stated by Hixson in the order. “And the manner in which Apple announced out of the blue four days before the substantial completion deadline that it would not make that deadline because of a document count that it had surely been aware of for weeks hardly creates the impression that Apple is behaving responsibly,” Hixson said.