Ruling of the Tribunal in relation to the applications by the Class Representative ("CR") and Defendants ("Apple") to provide expert evidence.
Subject to the Tribunal's approval, the parties had agreed that permission should be given to provide evidence from two experts each in competition economics, one expert each in accounting, and one expert each IT/mobile/internet security. The Tribunal gave permission for the parties to call evidence from these experts.
Apple resisted the CR's application to call expert evidence in relation to the app industry and the payment systems industry on the basis of the admissibility of the evidence. The Tribunal gave permission for the CR to call expert evidence in relation to the app industry and the payment systems industry. Both are areas of some technicality, where the Tribunal anticipates there will be individuals with recognised expertise. Once the CR has proposed the experts, the Tribunal will consider whether their experience and approach qualifies their evidence as admissible.
The CR resisted Apple's application to call expert evidence in relation to the economics of digital markets (resisted on the grounds of overlap with the areas to be covered by the competition economists), intellectual property (resisted on the grounds that there is no properly pleaded issue in the Defence), and a second IT/mobile/internet security expert, should that prove necessary. The Tribunal refused permission for Apple to call an expert in the economics of digital markets, on the grounds that the expert's proposed work would not be materially different to the work of the two competition economists that Apple already had permission to provide evidence from. The Tribunal gave permission for Apple to call an expert in relation to the valuation of intellectual property. In relation to the second IT/mobile/internet security expert, the Tribunal set out that the parties should, if they consider that it will be necessary to use two experts in this area after they have identified potential experts, list the issues, provide details of the expert, and the Tribunal would then consider the proposed issues and expert allocation.
