Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc.
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:20-cv-05640
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 7
In Epic Games v. Apple, Judge Rogers granted stipulations, authorized a reporter’s trial access, and ruled on third-party requests to seal documents.
The order affected the parties, third-party companies that sought to seal trial materials, the Media Coalition and reporter Bobby Allyn, and the public’s access to court records.
What happened
In Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc., the court addressed several administrative matters during the trial, including four stipulations, a request to add a reporter, and motions by third parties to keep trial exhibits or portions of them confidential.
The court granted all four stipulations. It ordered that National Public Radio reporter Bobby Allyn could enter the courthouse as a designated pool reporter beginning May 10, 2021. For the sealing motions, the court granted Facebook’s request except for specified documents or portions that had to be unsealed or redacted differently; granted Lyft’s and Spotify’s requests; denied Nintendo’s and Netflix’s requests; and granted Kabam’s request in part and denied it in part.
The order emphasized the public’s strong right to access court records, especially information relevant to competition in the case, while allowing narrowly tailored protection for confidential business information. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued the order on May 5, 2021.
The detailed version
- Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc. · No. 4:20-cv-05640
- Yvonne Rogers
- May 5, 2021
Background
This trial order addressed several docket matters in the case, which includes a related counterclaim. The court considered stipulations, a media-access request, and remaining administrative motions to seal proposed trial exhibits. Under the court’s discussion of Local Rule 79-5, court records may be sealed when a party establishes that they contain privileged material, trade secrets, or other information protected by law. The court also noted the strong presumption favoring public access, particularly during trial, and emphasized that the case concerns business competition and market conditions.
Rulings on stipulations and media access
The court granted the stipulations at docket numbers 498, 538, 563, and 583. The last stipulation gave Apple two additional days to respond to the consumer plaintiffs’ administrative motion for supplemental protective orders.
The Media Coalition requested that Bobby Allyn of National Public Radio be added to the reporters pre-authorized to enter the courthouse as a designated pool reporter. The court ordered that he could enter the federal building and Courtroom 1 beginning May 10, 2021, subject to the applicable provisions of the court’s Pretrial Order No. 5.
Rulings on motions to seal
- Facebook Inc. (Docket No. 546): The court granted the motion as to all documents except for specified exhibits and passages. It ordered particular portions of PX-2411, PX-2413, PX-2414, and PX-2415 to be unredacted or unsealed, while leaving other specified portions sealed or redacted. Facebook was directed to provide revised redacted versions for any public portion of the trial, assuming the documents were otherwise admissible. - Lyft Inc. (Docket No. 550): The court granted Lyft’s administrative motion to seal. It found the proposed redactions narrowly tailored and concluded that disclosure of confidential business information and future strategies would cause competitive harm. - Nintendo of America, Inc. (Docket No. 554): The court denied Nintendo’s administrative motion to seal its Content License and Distribution Agreement. The court found that the agreement was generally available to developers using the Nintendo Switch platform and that the public’s right of access outweighed Nintendo’s claimed competitive harm. - Kabam, Inc. (Docket No. 555): The court granted in part and denied in part the motion. It allowed sealing of the names of unreleased games, specified percentages tied to gross revenue, and a personal cell phone number, while requiring the remaining portions of the identified emails to be unredacted. Kabam was directed to provide revised redacted versions for any public portion of the trial, assuming the documents were otherwise admissible. - Spotify USA Inc. (Docket No. 560): The court granted Spotify’s administrative motion to seal two documents containing sensitive user and platform data. The court stated that it did not intend to seal the courtroom if the information was discussed only in general terms without specific numbers. - Netflix, Inc. (Docket No. 588): The court denied Netflix’s administrative motion to seal two documents containing payment statistics concerning consumers paying in an application rather than on the web. The court found the information highly relevant to the case and more than three years old, making the public-access interest greater than any harm to Netflix.
The court also noted that it had received Amazon.com Services, LLC’s motion for joinder at docket number 571 and that the ruling on sealing a related document had previously been deferred until the document’s use at trial. The order terminated the listed docket matters. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers signed the order.
Read the full 7-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.