Apple’s Legal Team Contests Subpoena In Antitrust Case

Apple ‘s lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have asked a California federal judge to toss a subpoena for live testimony from a company executive at a hearing this week in an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant over a coronavirus-related app.

According to Reuters, Gibson Dunn partner Mark Perry, a lead lawyer for Apple, said on Monday in a filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that the plaintiffs’ subpoena and notices to appear “are legally improper, unduly burdensome, and in contravention of this district’s local rules.”

US District Judge Edward Chen is scheduled on Thursday to hear Apple’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit, which alleges an antitrust violation tied to the company’s refusal to allow in the App Store a coronavirus-tracking app that was not affiliated with a government, hospital or university.

Chen will also hear plaintiff Coronavirus Reporter app’s push for a preliminary injunction. In court papers, the plaintiffs said they want Apple’s senior vice president of services Eddy Cue to testify at the motions hearing. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are probing Apple’s decision in March 2020 to deny the Coronavirus Reporter app.

Apple said in its motion to dismiss in August that the company “does not now, and did not then, have any obligation to approve and distribute on its own platform apps that are inconsistent with its guidelines or policies.”

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