Apple wants judge to force Valve to disclose business records

Apple has asked a judge to force video game distributor Valve to disclose business records that the tech giant says it needs to battle an antitrust class-action lawsuit accusing it of driving up app prices, reports Reuters.

Apple’s federal court filing in Seattle on Tuesday said Valve, developer of the digital distribution service Steam, has refused to provide sales and commission data that are “core” to its defense in the consumer lawsuit. A lawyer for Valve said in a letter to Apple this month that its demand for information “imposes a significant and undue burden.”

In February a California magistrate judge ordered Valve Corp. to hand over certain sales and pricing data to Apple in regards to the tech giant’s ongoing legal battle against Epic Games. And in November 2020, Apple subpoenaed Valve demanding it provide huge amounts of commercial data about Steam sales and operations going over multiple years.

A federal judge in February said tens of millions of Apple customers could band together as a class to press claims that the company’s App Store practices have caused consumers to pay artificially higher prices. Reuters says Apple has denied the allegations and has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to undo the lower court’s class certification order. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have estimated that class-wide damages reach billions of dollars.