Apple attempted to avoid producing a large volume of documents by the Monday deadline it was ordered to meet in its ongoing legal battle with Epic, but Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson refused to allow it. Initially given until September 30 to submit documents related to changes in its App Store rules made this year, Apple claimed it had to review around 650,000 documents. However, in a recent status report, the company revealed the number had actually doubled to over 1.3 million and requested a two-week extension. Hixson denied the request, criticizing Apple for its “bad behavior” and expressing doubts about the quality of its reports and its commitment to meeting deadlines. The judge pointed out that Apple’s vast resources should have enabled it to complete the task on time and accused the company of creating a moral hazard by suddenly claiming it couldn’t meet the deadline due to the document count, which it had supposedly known about for weeks.
