Apple reaches discovery impasse with Samsung, Epic and Oura

By Nathan Brooks

Nearly 900,000 Samsung documents now sit at the center of a federal antitrust discovery dispute involving Apple, Epic Games, Oura, Garmin and Playco. The standoff centers on internal records that each company believes it can withhold or limit.

On Nov. 4, Apple and several subpoenaed companies told U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre in Newark that they had reached an impasse over discovery in the DOJ’s antitrust suit against Apple. Joint letters set up motions to compel under an order centralizing subpoena enforcement. Several parties asked for any ruling to take effect after Nov. 11, allowing more talks.

The DOJ and 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, sued Apple in March 2024, alleging unlawful maintenance of a smartphone monopoly through restricted interoperability and barriers to device switching. Apple denies the allegations. It wants rivals’ internal documents to address market definition, competition and consumer switching behavior.

What does Apple want from Samsung?

Samsung Electronics America agreed to search two executives’ files and produced nearly 900,000 documents under agreed search terms. Apple now seeks files from six additional executives, including current U.S. CEO Yoonie Joung and former CEO K.S. Choi. It also wants documents that Samsung says exist only with its Korean parent, plus sales and user data.

Apple further wants deposition transcripts of Samsung officers Tim Baxter and Jay Kim from the DOJ’s search case against Google. Samsung says that case concerns “different subject matter” and that Apple never requested those transcripts in its subpoena. Nearly 900,000 documents did not settle the argument.

Epic says it is “not at impasse” and calls Apple’s demands burdensome. The material sought includes records Epic produced in its U.S. and Australian cases against Apple, plus its case against Google. Apple also wants a search of three senior leaders’ files from 2022 onward.

Epic has offered alternative evidence: contracts with Google and Samsung, Fortnite user and revenue data, Core Technology Fee invoice records and its trial exhibits. That narrows the proposed production, but it does not resolve the dispute.

Oura will review 32,182 additional documents only if Apple reimburses the cost. The smart-ring maker wants to withhold trade secrets and non-public financial and usage data, while Apple says confidentiality orders already protect those materials.

Garmin objects to requests for financial and strategic data. Japan’s Playco cites a 2021 ruling that protected Match Group’s lobbying records on First Amendment grounds, using it to resist Apple’s request for documents about its efforts to change App Store policy. That objection rests on constitutional grounds, not merely commercial confidentiality.

What is the government’s dispute with Roblox?

The DOJ and the states have filed their own impasse notice against Roblox. They say Roblox produced about 400 documents after more than a year of talks, mostly public web pages and filings, even though the plaintiffs narrowed their subpoena to seven requests on Oct. 22. The records could show whether Apple applies its App Store Guidelines consistently.

Roblox’s dispute shows that the government’s own discovery strategy remains unsettled. Its 400-document collection is a small public-facing offering beside Samsung’s much larger internal production. Both disputes concern what courts can require before ruling on Apple’s conduct.

After Nov. 11, the immediate test is which parties must hand over more records and how those records shape the evidence on market definition, switching and App Store enforcement. Motions to compel will settle the next procedural step, not the antitrust case itself.