(Thread) The Epic Games/Apple hearing is underway, and we already have a disagreement about how long is needed till trial - Epic says it can be ready in 4-6 months, Apple, after some prodding, says maybe 6-8 months.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers- “I can tell you right now that I am inclined not to grant relieve with respect to the games, but I am inclined to grant relieve with respect to the Unreal Engine,” she said.

In other words, Judge Gonzalez Rogers is not inclined to force Apple to put Fortnite back into the App Store, but she is inclined to stop Apple from cutting off Epic from what it needs to maintain Unreal Engine.

The hearing now centers on whether Apple can keep Fornite off the store, and the judge is very skeptical that Epic didn't know exactly what they were doing here.

Apple's attorney Richard Doren argues that Epic has put its customers in the middle of a business dispute and that Apple too, is getting many complaints about the removal of Fortnite.

Doren: "Apple's business model and most fundamental promise to its customers is...there will not be unknown code migrating into the App Store. We did not have to give Epic 14 days to cure, but we did."

Doren then goes on to cite Epic's PR campaign against Apple, to which Judge Gonzalez Rodgers says "let's move on."

Judge Gonzalez Rogers on Unreal Engine: "What Apple has done is reached beyond its one contact with Epic Games and is using hard leverage and has slammed Epic Games with this additional penalty. Remember, I just got this case, but it does to me look retaliatory. .....

(Judge Gonzalez Rogers, cont'd) "....I don’t see any harm to Apple to enjoin you or restrain you from not impacting the Unreal Engine. ... It looks like overreach to me."

Apple's Doren says its practice is to cancel across all accounts associated with a developer if there's an issue because issues often boil down into "shell games" where the offending conduct is slid into a different entity with the same parent.

Apple argues that it has terms in its contracts that let it terminate them at its sole discretion.

Epic's attorney Katherine B. Forrest- "In the context of an act of retaliation by an alleged monopolist, that is an act of maintained of monopoly, not the exercise of a contractual right."

Apple fires back that no evidence of market power has yet been accepted by the court in this case.

Epic's Forrest now arguing that Epic believes Unreal Engine will be "destroyed" because it will no longer be truly cross platform if it cannot support macOS and iOS. (We're now talking about the public interest portion of the consideration.)

[just stopping to say that watching a federal judge use the mute button on a very expensive attorney mid-sentence is amazing and I'm sure judges everywhere wish they had an IRL mute button]

Epic's attorney brings up Microsoft's filings supporting Epic's position on Unreal Engine, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers says she is very familiar with Microsoft President Brad Smith's comments on app stores in the press.

Epic's attorneys address Apple's argument that slipping payment system into the app via hotfix was a safety issue by citing physical goods can be purchased in Apps. "There is no security issue. What we know is that Apple is not going to paid as much as it will be paid," she said.

Apple's Doren now making the case that any harm to Epic here can be remedied with money (which would make it ineligible for a TRO)

Judge Gonzalez Rogers: "Apple has a reputation for going the distance. It's not surprising they acted the way they did here, but as I said I think they overreached.”

We're now at the part of the hearing where we talk about the prospects of success on the merits, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers just lays straight out that she doesn't think one weekend of briefings will come close to doing to justice to the antitrust issues at play.

[Epic attorney Gary Bornstein pointing out that delays in the hearing audio might have caused attorneys to accidentally speaking over Judge Gonzalez Rogers, though surely they did not mean to. Sounds like he does not want to get hit with that mute button!]