Apple and Epic Games head back to court over App Store order

Two Apple executives and three other senior Apple employees are expected to testify in California federal court next week, as a judge reconvenes a hearing into claims that the iPhone maker violated her order to allow more competition in its lucrative App Store.

In an order on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland rejected Apple's bid to shield some employees from testifying at the hearing, part of an antitrust lawsuit lodged in 2020 by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.

Rogers ordered Apple in 2021 to give developers more power to steer app users to payment options outside of Apple’s ecosystem. Epic has accused Apple of breaching that order by imposing an onerous commission on some transactions.

The judge is weighing Epic’s effort to enforce her ruling and to hold Apple in contempt. Apple has denied violating Rogers’ order.

Apple and Epic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two top Apple executives, Phil Schiller and Carson Oliver, are expected to defend the company’s conduct at the hearing. Three other employees including Marni Goldberg, director of corporate communications at Apple, are also set to testify after Rogers dismissed Apple's objections.

The February 24 hearing is scheduled to last three days, resuming a proceeding that began nearly a year ago over Apple’s compliance with the App Store injunction.

Rogers placed the hearing on hold last year to allow Epic to request and review tens of thousands of documents from Apple about its App Store commission policies and its compliance with the court’s injunction.

Apple recently told Epic there was no justification for requiring new testimony from Apple employees who had not appeared at last year’s hearing.

Epic countered that it should be allowed to question key employees who were part of the Apple team responsible for implementing Rogers' order.

The judge said in Tuesday’s order that it was “entirely untenable that Apple would not expect Epic to call additional witnesses.”