Intricate Ground Rules to Govern Remote Depositions in FTC v. Meta

The FTC and Meta agreed to an intricate “protocol” of ground rules for deposing witnesses remotely in the agency’s lawsuit to block Meta’s Within Unlimited buy, according to a joint stipulation (docket 5:22-cv-04325) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. The protocol will apply to all remote fact-based and expert depositions held during the discovery phase of the trial, said the stipulation. The deposing party is responsible for hiring and covering the cost of the court reporter, videographer and any other vendor required to help with the deposition and to comply with the terms of the protocol, it said. The court reporter will participate in the deposition remotely, “and will not be physically present in the same room as the witness,” it said. All deposition participants “will use secure, end-to-end encryption videoconferencing,” it said. Audio dial-in will be available for deposition participants unable to participate via videoconferencing, “provided that the witness, the attorney taking the deposition, and the attorney defending the deposition must participate with their video switched on,” it said. The videoconferencing platform will be hosted exclusively by the court reporting service, it said. The only recording of the deposition will be through the court reporting service, and the parties will instruct the court reporter “to record only when the deposition is on the record,” it said. Witnesses “will not have the ability to privately communicate by chat, email, text message or other means” with other deposition participants or anyone else while the deposition is on the record, it said. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose signed an order Friday granting the joint stipulation.