Apple was once believed to be the front-runner for acquiring rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, but talks eventually broke down and paved the way for YouTube to acquire the rights starting this year.
Meanwhile, the NFL has found itself embroiled in a class action lawsuit over the closed-door negotiations for Sunday Ticket rights, but Apple says that it wants no part in that lawsuit.
As first reported earlier this year, the NFL is battling a $6 billion class action lawsuit that accuses the company of artificially driving up the cost of Sunday Ticket. The case is divided into two separate categories, one focused on complaints from commercial entities like bars and restaurants, and another focused on complaints from individual consumer Sunday Ticket subscribers.
Through the class action lawsuit, the NFL is being pressured to reveal why Sunday Ticket talks with the likes of Apple and Amazon fell apart. In particular, the plaintiffs have expressed concerns around why there are so few documents available with details on the negotiations specifically between Apple and the NFL.
To help shed more light on those talks, Apple received a subpoena calling on Apple’s Services VUP Eddy Cue to testify as part of the case. As the boss of Apple’s Services division, Cue was the centerpiece of Apple’s talks with the NFL.
Apple, however, doesn’t believe that Cue needs to play a role in the class action suit. Apple is not a named party in the case, but plaintiffs want Cue to provide details on Apple’s talks with the NFL for Sunday Ticket – including details on why those talks seemingly fell apart at the eleventh hour.
In a new filing this week, as spotted by Reuters, Apple has rebuffed attempts to get Cue to testify in the case. Apple argues that questioning Cue would benefit “unduly burdensome.” Furthermore, Apple lawyers say that the plaintiffs in the case are seeking “irrelevant, disproportionate, and competitively sensitive” information.
Requiring Cue to testify and reveal such information, Apple says, is unnecessary. “Plaintiffs cannot show that Mr. Cue has unique, non-duplicative knowledge of the facts in the underlying litigation,” Apple’s lawyers wrote.
Whether or not Apple is successful in its efforts to prevent Cue from testifying remains to be seen. It does seem like a tough sell to get Cue to take the stand in a case Apple is not directly named as a party. Still, crazier things have happened.
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