Apple subpoenas Samsung

Apple is trying to pull documents out of Samsung’s headquarters in South Korea to defend itself in the United States government’s monopoly case, which means an American fight over the iPhone is now reaching into a rival’s files overseas. The request was reported on April 9, 2026, and it comes during the evidence-gathering phase of the case. (macrumors.com) The case itself started on March 21, 2024, when the United States Department of Justice and a coalition of states sued Apple in federal court in New Jersey. The government says Apple used App Store rules, developer contracts, and control over iPhone features to make it harder for users and developers to leave its ecosystem. (justice.gov) The government’s complaint is built around switching costs, which is the legal and economic idea that leaving one product can be made painful enough that customers stay put. In its June 11, 2024 amended complaint, the government even pointed to an internal Apple message from 2010 warning that it was “easy to switch from iPhone to Android.” (justice.gov) That is why Samsung matters here. Samsung sells the biggest Android phones in the world, so its internal data can show how often people move between iPhone and Android, what features help them switch, and how much Apple’s rules actually block rivals. (androidauthority.com) Apple is not asking Samsung’s American arm for a few public market slides. Apple is asking a United States court to send a formal evidence request to Samsung Electronics in the Republic of Korea after Samsung’s United States subsidiary said it did not control the South Korean parent’s records. (appleinsider.com) The legal tool here is a Hague Evidence Convention request, which is basically a court-to-court channel for getting records across borders when a normal domestic subpoena stops at the water’s edge. Even if the New Jersey court approves the request, South Korean authorities still have to process it under local procedure. (appleinsider.com) (themacobserver.com) This fight is happening because Apple failed to end the case early. The Department of Justice’s case page shows the suit remained active through briefing in 2024, and reporting this week says the matter has now moved into discovery, where both sides demand documents, emails, and internal analyses. (justice.gov) (gadgets360.com) What Apple appears to want from Samsung is evidence that the smartphone market is more competitive than the government claims. If Samsung’s records show meaningful switching, aggressive rivalry, or product decisions that pulled users away from the iPhone, Apple can use that to argue that its platform rules did not lock the market shut. (androidauthority.com) (justice.gov) That turns a courtroom argument into a product argument. Internal Samsung documents about phone setup, user migration, app distribution, or feature comparisons could become evidence about whether Apple’s App Store policies were ordinary competition or illegal exclusion. (macrumors.com) (justice.gov) It also shows how antitrust cases in 2026 work in practice. A dispute that started with the App Store in California and Washington is now pulling in a Korean hardware giant, cross-border evidence treaties, and internal product records that engineers and business teams never expected to see quoted in a United States courtroom. (macrumors.com) (justice.gov)