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Apple subpoenas Samsung in South Korea in U.S. DOJ antitrust action

MacDailyNews

Apr 9

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Apple has asked a U.S. court to formally request internal Samsung documents from South Korea as part of the discovery process in the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the company.

The U.S. DOJ filed the suit against Apple in March 2024, together with several other governments. It alleges that Apple used App Store rules, developer restrictions, and its control over key iPhone features to stifle competition. After Apple’s attempt to have the case dismissed was rejected, the litigation has now moved into the discovery phase.

Hartley Charlton for MacRumors:
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Samsung is central to the case. All four complaints identify Samsung as Apple’s “closest smartphone competitor,” and plaintiffs allege that Apple’s conduct caused Samsung to stop making smartwatches that connect to iPhone in 2021. Apple subpoenaed Samsung’s U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Electronics America, for documents, but the subsidiary declined to produce any records, arguing the materials are held solely by its South Korean parent. Apple says Samsung America lodged that objection 65 times across its responses.

In a memorandum filed on April 7, Apple asked the court to issue a formal letter of request under the Hague Evidence Convention, an international mechanism that allows civil proceedings to seek documents from foreign entities. The request targets market research, sales data, financial statements, and consumer switching analyses from Samsung’s smartphone and wearables divisions, as well as Galaxy Store developer agreements and documents relating to Samsung Pay, messaging apps, and super apps.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple is now turning the tables in the DOJ’s flimsy antitrust lawsuit by asking a U.S. court to formally request a trove of internal Samsung documents from South Korea via the Hague Evidence Convention.

After Samsung Electronics America stonewalled a prior subpoena (objecting a whopping 65 times and claiming the real records sit with its Korean parent) Apple wants market research, sales data, financials, consumer switching analyses, Galaxy Store agreements, details on Samsung Pay, messaging apps, super apps, and even its Smart Switch tool. All of this to demonstrate how Apple’s “anticompetitive” practices supposedly forced Samsung to abandon iPhone-compatible smartwatches years ago.

The irony is thick: the DOJ’s case leans heavily on claims about Apple crushing competition, yet here we are, with Apple forced to dig through its fiercest smartphone rival’s files just to defend basic business decisions that have delivered the world’s most successful and secure smartphone platform.

This discovery phase is shaping up to be a long, expensive slog — one that highlights just how weak the DOJ’s allegations appear when subjected to actual evidence rather than regulatory grandstanding. Apple is playing the long game, as usual, and we expect the facts to continue undermining the government’s narrative.

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