Company, not Cook, will be held responsible if Apple loses fight over FBI case, experts say

A privacy lawyer with the Electornic Frontier Foundation, Lee Tien, told Quartz that the company could potentially be hit with severe fines. Specifically he referred to a 2007 case, in which the U.S. government allegedly threatened Yahoo with fines up to $250,000 per day if it refused to share data wanted for surveillance.

Both Yahoo and Apple were among several major U.S. tech companies later identified as participants — willing or unwilling — in PRISM, a National Security Agency program scooping up vast amounts of Internet communications data. That program was exposed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

A national security law expert at American University, Stephen Vladeck, also supported the view that Apple as a whole could be held in contempt.

Cook has said that he's willing to resist the order as far as a Supreme Court challenge, though a lawyer for the company — Ted Olson — said on Friday that Apple will probably back down if it loses at that level. No penalties are likely to come into force unless Apple makes a stand past that point, and therefore breaks the law.