Neither Samsung nor the U.S. Justice Department could stop U.S. courts from attempting to obtain data crucial to Apple’s U.S. antitrust defense from high up in Samsung’s corporate structure in South Korea.
Apple is on trial for allegedly stifling competition with proprietary hardware and software. The US Department of Justice is seeking to prove that Apple is preventing companies like Samsung from easily serving its customers.
The trial has only just entered the evidence-gathering phase and Samsung’s US headquarters has refused to cooperate. So, Apple requested and has now been authorized to use the Hague Convention to involve the South Korean government and force Samsung to comply in that country.
woozad saw the brief document submitted showing that the application was approved. It states that “the court will execute the submitted international legal assistance request letter.”
Basically, Samsung says it can’t hand over evidence stored in the South Korean parent company’s databases. Since he’s not part of Samsung America, he hopes the court will agree that it’s irrelevant.
The DOJ also complained about the rejection of Apple’s request. He argued that Apple waited too long to submit the filing.
Neither argument was successful and Apple’s request was narrow enough for it to be granted. The court will now submit a request to the South Korean government, asking it to force Samsung to hand over relevant documents.
That doesn’t mean Apple will get what it wants right away. The South Korean government may disagree with the scope of the request, or even refuse it altogether. It is also possible that Samsung will retaliate in Korea as well.
This matter is still very early. Apple was sued by the DOJ in March 2024 and the first requests for evidence were filed in October 2025.
Expect this case to take the better part of the next decade to reach some sort of conclusion.
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