Apple Lawsuits

Back in August, Apple said that it would pay out $100 million and make several changes to the App Store to settle a class-action lawsuit brought about by developers, and the settlement offer received preliminary approval yesterday from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers, who is overseeing that case in addition to the Epic v. Apple lawsuit. Under the terms of the agreement, Apple will create a $100 ...

Apple has opted to appeal the ruling meted out by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit back in September, and today filed a notice of appeal with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The Cupertino company is planning to appeal the ruling that would require it to change its App Store rules to allow developers to add in-app links ...

Apple on Friday reached a $95 million settlement that, pending court approval, will resolve a class action lawsuit that accused the company of violating the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act and other U.S. laws by replacing customers' devices covered by AppleCare with refurbished devices, according to court documents accessed by MacRumors. Apple's Repair Terms and Conditions for the U.S. state...

Apple is facing a new class-action lawsuit in the United States that accuses it of false or deceptive marketing for the M1-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, fraudulent business practices, misconduct in customer support, and violation of consumer law. The lawsuit, filed this week in the Northern District of California, represents Apple customers across the United States who have faced...

Back in December, Apple lost a copyright lawsuit against security research company Corellium, and today, Apple filed an appeal in that case, reports Reuters. The judge in the copyright case determined that Corellium was operating under fair use terms and that its use of iOS was permissible, throwing out several of Apple's claims. For those unfamiliar with Corellium, the software is designed...

Apple must pay $300 million in damages to Optis Wireless Technology for infringing a handful of patents related to 4G LTE technology, a Texas jury has ruled (via Reuters). In August 2020, a jury found that Apple had infringed five Optis wireless patents and awarded $506 million in damages, but a Texas judge vacated that award in April and ordered a new trial to focus on damages only. US...

Apple this week dropped its long-standing lawsuit against Corellium, the security research company that provides security researchers with a replica of the iOS operating system, allowing them to locate possible security exploits within Apple's mobile operating system, The Washington Post reports. Apple filed a lawsuit against Corellium in 2019, claiming the security company was infringing...

As part of a class action lawsuit settlement, Zoom says it will pay $85 million to users for misleading them about offering end-to-end encryption on its videoconferencing service. According to ArsTechnica, the company was accused of lying about its encryption description on its website and in a security white paper, as well as providing user data to Facebook and Google without users'...

A class action lawsuit that Apple was facing over "Flexgate" issues affecting MacBook Pro displays has been dismissed by a California federal judge, reports Law360. Filed in May 2020, the lawsuit accused Apple of knowingly concealing an alleged flex cable display defect impacting some 13 and 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models. The judge overseeing the case said that because the defect appeared...

Apple has filed a subpoena against the Coalition for App Fairness, requesting details on their communications as Apple fights a series of antitrust lawsuits. The Coalition for App Fairness comprises several companies who have been critical of Apple's App Store rules and fees, including Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, Tile, and Match Group. Members of the Coalition for App Fairness earlier this...

Australia's Federal Court has permitted Epic Games to sue Apple, reversing a previous ruling that said the two companies had to battle it out in the United States first before any legal action could take place Down Under. Epic and Apple are involved in a highly public lawsuit in the United States, but Epic has also sued Apple in other countries, including Australia last November, in an...

Apple has paid a 21-year-old millions of dollars in a legal settlement after photos and videos from the customer's iPhone, sent in for repair, were uploaded to Facebook, leading to "severe emotional distress," according to a new report from The Telegraph. The incident occurred in 2016 at a repair facility run by Apple supplier Pegatron in California. The 21-year-old college student sent her ‌...

AliveCor, a company that that has developed an ECG 'KardiaBand' for the Apple Watch, today filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that accuses the Cupertino company of "monopolistic conduct." According to AliveCor, Apple's decision to exclude third-party heart rate analysis providers from the Apple Watch has harmed AliveCor and impacted patients and consumers. To go along with the...

A new legal case filed with the U.K.'s Competition Appeal Tribunal has accused Apple of breaching competition law by overcharging nearly 20 million customers for App Store purchases. The collective action case alleges Apple's 30% commission on app sales and consumers' forced use of its own payment processing system generates "unlawfully excessive levels of profit," and calls for the company...

Last month, Apple filed a lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, a former employee who allegedly used his senior position within the company to steal "sensitive trade secret information" that he then provided to a reporter. Lancaster responded to the complaint this week in California court. In his formal answer, obtained by MacRumors, Lancaster denied that he abused his position and trust within...

Apple customers unhappy with the butterfly keyboards used in MacBook models from 2015 on will be able to proceed with a lawsuit against the Cupertino company, as the judge overseeing the case has given it class action status [PDF]. The suit covers anyone who purchased a MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Michigan. As...

A federal jury in Texas has ordered Apple to pay around $308.5 million to a local licensing firm for infringing a patent related to digital rights management, reports Bloomberg. Following a five-day trial, jurors on Friday said Apple must pay running loyalty fees to Texas-based Personalized Media Communications (PMC). A running loyalty is generally based on the amount of sales of a product...

App developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who highlighted the problem of scam and copycat apps on the App Store last month, is now suing Apple for a variety of allegations, including negligence and anticompetitive conduct (via The Verge). Eleftheriou's complaint, filed against Apple in Santa Clara County, California, accuses the company of exploiting its control over iOS apps "to make billions of...

A judge in California has ruled that Google must face a class action lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracks the online activity of Chrome users even when they're using the browser in its privacy-oriented Incognito mode (via Bloomberg). The lawsuit was filed in June by three plaintiffs alleging that Google hoovers up user data through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager and other applications ...

Apple today filed a lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, a former employee who allegedly used his position within the company to steal "sensitive trade secret information" from Apple that was then leaked to a journalist and published in rumor articles. Lancaster worked at Apple for more than a decade, using his seniority to attend internal meetings and access documents that Apple says were...