The judge in the Apple versus Epic Games case has told the Cupertino company that she wants to see all of the company’s documents relating to its revised App Store policies – and she has strongly emphasised that she means all of them.

It follows earlier remarks in which she strongly implied that Apple was guilty of bad-faith compliance with the antitrust ruling she made back in 2021 …

The story so far

• Epic Games introduced its own in-app payment system on iPhone
• This bypassed the App Store, and denied Apple its 30% commission
• This was a blatant breach of App Store terms & conditions
• Apple responded by throwing the company off the App Store
• The two companies went to court
• The court told Epic that Apple did not operate a monopoly
• The court told Apple it must allow in-app sales outside the App Store
• Both cases appealed the parts of the ruling they didn’t like
• The US Supreme Court declined to hear either appeal

With Judge Rogers’ order confirmed, Apple announced that it would allow third-party app sales – but it would still charge a 27% commission on them (12% for small developers).

Epic went back to court to argue that this was an act of bad faith on Apple’s part, as it went against the entire intention of the judge’s decision.

Judge Rogers last month strongly implied that she was likely to rule in favor of Epic, her remarks implying that she simply didn’t believe the claims Apple made that the company genuinely thought it was complying with the intent of her ruling.

Judge wants all of Apple’s documents

Courthouse News Service reports that the judge has now demanded to see all of Apple’s internal documents relating to its decision to charge 27% commission on all in-app purchases made outside of the App Store. Patently Apple spotted the report.

Rogers on Friday said that she still needs many documents from Apple from the period when it explored and confirmed its new App Store policies, before she rules on the matter.

“I want all of Apple’s documents relative to its decision making process with respect to the issues in front of the court,” Rogers told Apple attorney Mark Perry. “All of them. If there is a concern, then be overly broad.”

9to5Mac’s Take

We said at the time that Apple’s response was effectively giving the middle finger to the judge, and she indeed seemed to echo that view last month. Payment processors like Stripe typically charge a 3% commission, so the calculation Apple claims not to have done is ‘27% + 3% = 30%’ … No surprise that the judge was incredulous.

Her demand to see all of the documents relating to this decision – and emphasising that she really does mean all of them – is further evidence that Apple has lost all credibility with her, and she wants to see for herself how the decision was reached.

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash