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Apple's Tim Cook to undergo 7-hour deposition for Fortnite case

A judge denied a pair of Apple requests and, in doing so, Apple CEO Tim Cook will have to undergo a seven-hour deposition regarding the ongoing Fortnite case.

Ozzie Mejia

February 1, 2021 2:45 PM

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is about to have a long day ahead of him as part of the continuing legal battle between his company and Epic Games. While Apple and Epic are set to go to trial in May, Tim Cook will have to have a deposition prepared before then. It won't be a short one, either, as a judge ruled that Cook's deposition will be in the neighborhood of seven hours, denying Apple's request that Cook be excused.

"[In] these three antitrust actions, the facts of the case go way beyond the historical facts of what happened when," said U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson in his ruling (via Apple Insider). "There is really no one like Apple's CEO who can testify about how Apple views competition in these various markets that are core to its business model."

Apple's request to subpoena Samsung's internal documents regarding Fortnite's distribution was also denied. In denying the request, Hixson noted that Samsung was not a party to the case between Apple and Epic.

This is the latest chapter in the ongoing ugliness between Apple and Epic Games. Fortnite's mobile version was removed from the iOS App Store back in August after Epic instituted a direct payment option in an effort to circumvent Apple's fees. Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple the next day. Fortnite was also removed from Google Play shortly after it banned from the iOS ecosystem.

"Fast forward to 2020, and Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation," Epic stated in its original filing. "Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched, and more pernicious than the monopolists of yesteryear. At a market cap of nearly $2 trillion, Apple's size and reach far exceeds that of any technology monopolist in history."

Apple and Epic will go to trial on May 3, 2021, with Tim Cook's seven-hour deposition set to take place soon.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?