Apple and the Department of Justice have submitted a joint notice of impasse over how recent Apple’s documents must be to fall within the scope of discovery in their ongoing antitrust lawsuit. Here are the details.
A bit of context
In March 2024, the Department of Justice, alongside 15 states and the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the smartphone market.
In essence, they accuse Apple of restricting competition, limiting interoperability with rival products, and making it harder for consumers to switch to competing devices. Apple denies these allegations.
Since then, the two sides have clashed repeatedly over discovery, the pretrial process through which both sides exchange evidence relevant to the case. Interestingly, Apple and the DOJ have also reportedly been engaged in settlement talks behind the scenes.
Back to the disputes, they have included how many Apple employees’ records should be searched, whether Apple must produce documents from outside the US, and Apple’s efforts to obtain records from 14 federal agencies, which the government continues to challenge.
Amid these disputes, the discovery schedule has been extended several times, which brings us to today’s filing.
Apple and DOJ at odds over document production cutoff
In a joint notice filed today, Apple and the DOJ inform the court of “an impasse concerning
the cutoff date for Apple’s productions in response to all Requests for Production.”
According to the DOJ, while the two sides initially agreed to a June 20, 2025 cutoff for the documents Apple would be required to produce, that date was based on the original discovery schedule, which has since been pushed back.
In practical terms, the June 20, 2025 cutoff date was agreed upon with the expectation that fact discovery would be completed by July 31, 2026. However, that deadline has since been extended twice, and is now scheduled for late May 2027.
As a result, the DOJ argues that Apple should be required to update its document production to include records created up to 30 days before fact discovery closes, warning that sticking to the original cutoff could prevent the government from obtaining evidence of Apple’s allegedly “ongoing anticompetitive conduct.”
Plaintiffs contend they should not be prejudiced in obtaining and presenting evidence of Apple’s ongoing anticompetitive conduct by the extended fact discovery schedule, particularly when Apple requested the delay. Plaintiffs believe that Apple’s proposal to consider supplementation on a case-by-case basis is unworkable, likely to generate more disputes over the course of fact discovery, and inconsistent with Apple’s duty to supplement under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(e).
Apple, on the other hand, argues that the June 2025 cutoff was part of a negotiated agreement and that the DOJ’s request would effectively restart the document discovery process, introducing “months of delay into this case.”
The parties previously agreed to a presumptive June 20, 2025 discovery cut-off. Apple then substantially completed its document productions in the Government Action in 12 months — with a massive investment of resources and hundreds of contractors dedicated to the process. Re-collecting from 54 custodians and numerous other sources, then searching, reviewing, and producing new materials for a 22-month period would take Apple several more months. It is simply not feasible for Apple to produce documents up until 30 days before the close of fact discovery, as that would mean new collections, searches, review, and production within those last 30 days, after almost all depositions will be complete.”
Instead, Apple says it is willing to consider targeted requests for additional documents on a case-by-case basis, an approach the DOJ argues would be unworkable and likely lead to further disputes.
Apple also disputed the DOJ’s suggestion that the company was solely responsible for the schedule extensions and pointed out that the government has yet to produce documents in response to most of Apple’s requests, which were “served over 15 months ago.”
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