Apple Lawsuits

Apple's subsidiaries in France and Belgium have had criminal complaints filed against them by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is accusing the tech giant of using conflict minerals in its product supply chain (via Reuters). The complaints allege that Apple is complicit in handling stolen goods and laundering minerals obtained through armed conflicts in the region. Congo, a major...

A UK class action lawsuit against Apple over App Store commission fees will proceed after judges dismissed the company's attempt to block the case, Bloomberg reports. Led by competition policy professor Sean Ennis, the suit alleges Apple's 15-30% commission on App Store sales creates an anti-competitive tax on the UK technology industry. The lawsuit seeks £785 million ($995 million) in...

California Apple employee Amar Bhakta has filed a lawsuit against Apple for alleged labor violations, accusing the Cupertino company of suppressing employee speech, invading employee privacy though surveillance and inspecting personal data, and clawing back earned wages (via Semafor). Bhakta sued Apple after Apple prohibited him from speaking about his work experience on podcasts and also...

Apple today filed a motion to dismiss its ongoing lawsuit with the United States Department of Justice, a standard step in the litigation process. In its motion to dismiss, Apple argues that the government's complaint has not demonstrated anticompetitive conduct, anticompetitive effect that harms consumers, or that Apple is a monopoly power in the U.S. smartphone market. The government needs to...

Apple this month sued its former employee Andrew Aude in California state court, alleging that he breached the company's confidentiality agreement and violated labor laws by leaking sensitive information to the media and employees at other tech companies. Apple has demanded a jury trial, and it is seeking damages in excess of $25,000. Aude joined Apple as an iOS software engineer in 2016,...

The U.S. Department of Justice today announced it has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit alleges that Apple illegally maintains a monopoly in the smartphone market with the iPhone and the device's locked-down ecosystem. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. In a statement shared with MacRumors, Apple said the lawsuit is "wrong on the facts and the...

Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that Apple CEO Tim Cook defrauded shareholders by concealing falling demand for iPhones in China, according to Reuters, which cited a court filing today. The proposed settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in California. On a November 1, 2018 earnings call with analysts, Cook sai...

Apple has reached an agreement with Rivos, the SoC company that it sued in 2022 for theft of trade secrets, reports Bloomberg. Rivos will submit to a forensic examination of its systems to remove any confidential Apple information. Rivos hired more than 40 employees from Apple, including several former high-ranking engineers, leading Apple to file a lawsuit in May 2022. Apple accused Rivos...

Apple will not have to face an investor lawsuit accusing it of overpaying CEO Tim Cook and other top executives by tens of millions of dollars, after a federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the case (via Reuters). The plaintiff, a pension fund affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Apple in 2021 and 2022 awarded a respective $92.7 million and $94 million to Cook and...

An antitrust lawsuit that AliveCor filed against Apple back in 2021 will not proceed, with the judge overseeing the case today filing a summary judgment in Apple's favor. The full ruling is under seal as of now due to confidentiality requests from Apple and AliveCor, but the filing makes it clear that the case went in Apple's favor and the Cupertino company was not found to have engaged in...

Apple has dealt a blow against spyware maker NSO Group and the Israeli firm's efforts to move Apple's lawsuit against it to its home country. Apple in November 2021 sued the group and its parent company with the aim of holding it accountable for targeting Apple users with spyware used for surveillance purposes. Judge Donato denied NSO's motion to dismiss Apple's case "in all respects," and...

As Apple starts selling Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models without the blood oxygen sensor enabled, Masimo CEO Joe Kiani confirmed to Bloomberg that there has been no chat with Apple about a possible settlement. According to Kiani, he has not spoken to anyone from Apple "personally" and no one from Apple has reached out about an agreement. He did say there have been court-ordered...

Apple last year agreed to pay $35 million to settle a U.S. class action lawsuit alleging that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were prone to audio issues due to a defective chip in the devices, and it has now started notifying eligible customers by email. You may be eligible for a payment from Apple if you are a U.S. resident who owned an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus between September 16, 2016...

Apple wants Epic Games to pay $73.4 million in legal fees after Apple won the antitrust case brought against it by the North Carolinian games maker. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear separate requests from both Apple and ‌Epic Games‌ in their long-standing lawsuit against each other regarding App Store rules, effectively closing a case that has run since August 2020. In multiple ...

The United States Supreme Court today declined to hear separate requests from both Apple and Epic Games in their long-standing lawsuit against each other with regards to App Store rules. Apple made the request in September 2023, asking the Supreme Court to hear its appeal about the portion of its legal dispute that was ruled in Epic's favor. This was Apple's so-called "anti-steering" rule...

A second wave of Apple customers eligible for a payment under a $95 million Apple refurbished device lawsuit are today receiving emails letting them know that the funds will be sent out starting tomorrow. As Settlement Administrator for the matter, we're sending you this courtesy email to inform you that by January 9, 2024, you will receive a payment notification email that contains a link to...

Apple has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over Family Sharing, and will pay out $25 million to put an end to the case. First filed in 2019, the lawsuit accused Apple of misrepresenting the way that subscriptions to third-party apps worked with the Family Sharing feature. While Family Sharing allows participants to share subscriptions with one another, app developers can opt out of...

Apple has reached a settlement in its multi-year copyright lawsuit against Corellium, a company known for creating virtual versions of iOS for security research purposes, Forbes reports. The lawsuit, initiated by Apple in 2019, accused Corellium of infringing upon its copyrights by replicating iOS. Corellium's technology allowed security researchers and developers to run virtual iPhones,...

Epic Games and Apple have been fighting over Apple's App Store rules since 2020, when ‌Epic Games‌ opted to blatantly violate the guidelines that prevent apps from avoiding the in-app purchase system. ‌Epic Games‌ did so with the aim of kicking off a long legal battle, but it has not gone in Epic's favor. In 2021, the judge overseeing the case sided with Apple, concluding that Apple was not...

Apple's legal battle with pulse oximetry company Masimo has been taking place over the course of the last two weeks, but we've heard little about it. The judge overseeing the case sealed some parts of the trial, but legal affairs journalist Meghan Cuniff, who has been following the dispute, today shared some details on what the two sides are arguing over in court. For a refresher, Masimo has ...