GT Advanced Technology accused Apple of using a "bait and switch" strategy that pushed the company to bankruptcy.
GT Advanced announced its bankruptcy early last month after Apple released the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, both of which do not contain the synthetic sapphire made by GT Advanced. Apple invested $578 million in GT Advanced last year for the production of the material which the company failed to deliver. The court ordered both parties not to disclose the actual reason for the bankruptcy filing.
But now GT Advanced has broken its silence and revealed that the company went into a one-sided deal with the iPad maker. In documents unsealed by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Mass., GT Chief Operating Officer Daniel Squiller wrote that Apple offered the company a good deal in the start then changed it later, Reuters reported.
The document also revealed that the deal between GT Advanced and Apple was one-sided because Apple has no obligation to buy the sapphire materials but prohibited GT Advanced from selling the material to other buyers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company questioned the contract, but Apple refused to negotiate, arguing that the rest of Apple's suppliers have the same deal. GT Advanced spent 30 percent more than the original production cost of the sapphire material, but Apple refused to pay more. As a result, the company failed to deliver the expected number of materials because of financing restraints, according to the document.
"Knowing that GTAT had no practical choice at that stage other than to concede to Apple's terms, Apple forced a set of agreements on GTAT, that in combination with Apple's economic leverage, put Apple in de facto control of GTAT," wrote Squiller.
Apple denied the allegations and said that it also suffered from the deal because it threw in money for the production but didn't get the material.
"These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully," Apple said in its separate filing.
