Apple is ordinarily hush hush about its deals with suppliers. But a court filing with GT Advanced, the company that was supposed to supply the Apple Watch’s sapphire screens, reveals that Apple would inflict a $US50 million penalty for any leak of clandestine product info. Ouch.
These documents were released ahead of a hearing for GT Advanced, which just filed for bankruptcy last week. This is just one case for one company, so we don’t know what Apple’s contracts are with other suppliers. 9to5Mac notes that it probably varies based on the size of the supplier and what it supplies. But the takeaway here is that huge financial penalties for the leak of information on Apple’s big secrets are standard with its component suppliers. Although, these days, leaks are pretty much par for the course, which means penalties do not necessarily guarantee protection. [9to5Mac]