Apple made a last-ditch attempt to stop producing the bulk of the documents by Monday under a pending order with Epic, but Judge Thomas Hixson has rejected that. In early August, the company was given a September 30 deadline to submit documentation regarding changes it made to App Store rules this year to comply with the injunction. Apple initially told the court the work would require reviewing about 650,000 documents, but in a status report Thursday it said that number had ballooned to more than 1.3 million and asked for a two-week extension. Ta. Hixson rejected the request Friday in a strongly worded order reported by The Verge, condemning Apple’s move as “bad behavior.”
The judge noted that Apple and Epic submit a joint status report to the court every two weeks, and there has never been an issue where Apple’s documents exceeded the original estimates. “This information would have been disclosed to Apple weeks ago,” Hickson said in the order. “It is simply incredible that Apple learned this information within just two weeks of the last status report.” The judge said the request raises other concerns, including the quality of Apple’s reports and Apple’s commitment to timely compliance. He said it cast doubt on the intentions of the Hickson said Apple had “nearly unlimited resources” that could have been used to complete the task within the allotted time.
“This is a classic moral hazard,” Hixson said in the order, “Four days before the actual completion deadline, Apple suddenly announces that it will not meet the deadline due to the large number of documents.” I was definitely aware of the way it was done.” Recent weeks have given little impression that Apple is acting responsibly. ”
