Apple Lawsuits

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...

Initially filed in 2016, a class action lawsuit that accuses Apple of violating the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, and other U.S. laws by providing customers with refurbished replacement devices is set to proceed to trial August 16, according to a notice this week from law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. Apple's repair terms and conditions state that,...

Apple has subpoenaed Valve in its ongoing lawsuit with Epic Games, demanding it provides huge amounts of commercial data about Steam sales and operations dating back several years, court filings have revealed (via PC Gamer). The subpoena was initiated by Apple in November 2020 under the argument that information about Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, would be crucial to...

Facebook is preparing to launch a lawsuit against Apple for alleged anticompetitive behaviour, particularly regarding App Tracking Transparency and iMessage, according to The Information. The antitrust lawsuit would contend that Apple has abused its power in the smartphone industry by enforcing App Store rules that Apple itself supposedly does not have to follow. Within this, the case...

Italian consumer association Altroconsumo today announced that it has launched a class action lawsuit [PDF] against Apple for planned obsolescence (via Reuters). Altroconsumo is seeking damages of 60 million euros on behalf of Italian consumers who were "tricked" by the practice, with the lawsuit covering the iPhone 6, ‌iPhone‌ 6 Plus, ‌iPhone‌ 6s, and ‌iPhone‌ 6s Plus."When consumers buy...

Corellium, a mobile device company that supports iOS, this week won a significant victory in its legal battle against Apple. Apple last year sued Corellium for copyright infringement because the Corellium software is designed to replicate iOS to allow security researchers to locate bugs and security flaws. According to The Washington Post, a Florida judge threw out Apple's claims that...