Apple,
the
most
valuable
company
in
the
world,
will
have
to
work
this
weekend
to
meet
a
legal
deadline
on
Monday.
That’s
after
Magistrate
Judge
Thomas
S.
Hixson
on
Friday
denied
the
company’s
request
for
more
time
to
produce
1.3
million
documents
related
to
App
Store
changes
it
made
in
January
to
comply
with
a
2021
court
order.
Judge
Yvonne
Gonzalez
Rogers,
who
presided
over
the
Epic
lawsuit
that
resulted
in
those
changes,
told
Apple’s
legal
team
on
May
31st
it
would
need
to
produce
all
documents
related
to
how
it
decided
the
new
App
Store
rules
after
Epic
challenged
them.
Document
discovery
was
then
referred
to
Hixson,
who
quoted
part
of
a
transcript
from
the
hearing
when
he
set
Monday’s
deadline
back
in
August:
“THE
COURT:
—
so
let
me
make
it
clear
then
if
you
obviously
didn’t
understand.
I
want
all
of
Apple’s
documents
relative
to
its
decision-making
process
with
respect
to
the
issues
in
front
of
the
Court.
All
of
them. All.
If
there
is
a
concern,
then
be
overly
broad.
MR.
PERRY:
Your
Honor,
may
I
ask
time
parameter
for
the
Court’s
request.
THE
COURT:
All.
MR.
PERRY:
Thank
you,
Your
Honor.
THE
COURT:
So
let’s
say
from
the
day
that
my
decision
came
out
until
the
present.”
Hixson
required
Apple
to
use
search
strings
that
Epic
had
proposed
for
gathering
the
documents.
He
also
required
both
companies
to
produce
status
reports
every
two
weeks
until
the
documents
were
submitted.
It
wasn’t
until
Thursday’s
report
that
Apple
asked
for
more
time
to
review
the
documents
because
it
originally
estimated
it
would
only
need
to
produce
650,000
of
them.
Judge
Hixson,
calling
the
last-minute
request
“bad
behavior,”
goes
on
to
explain
his
denial
in
the
text
below
from
his
decision
yesterday.
“Before
yesterday’s
report
Apple
never
previewed
to
Epic
Games
or
to
the
Court
that
the
number
of
documents
it
would
need
to
review
exceeded
its
prior
estimate
by
a
substantial
amount.
This
information
would
have
been
apparent
to
Apple
weeks
ago.
It
is
simply
not
believable
that
Apple
learned
of
this
information
only
in
the
two
weeks
following
the
last
status
report.
This
gives
rise
to
several
related
concerns.
First,
Apple’s
status
reports
weren’t
any
good.”
He
later
supposes
that
with
Apple’s
resources,
“it
could
probably
review
that
many
documents
in
a
weekend”
if
it
wanted
to.
But,
he
writes,
producing
the
documents
quickly
“is
all
downside
for
Apple,”
given
how
they
relate
to
Epic’s
allegations
that
the
company
hadn’t
actually
complied
with
Judge
Gonzalez
Rogers’
injunction.
“It’s
up
to
Apple
to
figure
out
how
to
meet
that
deadline,
but
Monday
is
indeed
the
deadline,”
Hixson
concluded.
(Originally posted by Wes Davis)
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