Apple Lawsuits

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 ...

Back in July, Apple agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the faulty butterfly keyboards that were used in MacBook machines between 2015 and 2019, and now emails about the settlement are going out to MacBook Pro owners eligible for a payment. Dear MacBook Owner, You are receiving this email because you previously reached out to our firm regarding your MacBook...

Apple today filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AliveCor, a company that has developed the ECG "KardiaBand" designed for the Apple Watch, among other ECG-focused products. AliveCor and Apple are already in the midst of a legal battle following an ITC complaint and antitrust lawsuit that AliveCor filed last year According to Apple, AliveCor's product line has not been successful with...

Apple is facing a proposed federal class action alleging that it records users' mobile activity without their consent and despite privacy assurances, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, reports Bloomberg. In a lawsuit filed by New York citizen and iPhone 13 owner Elliot Libman, Apple is accused of "utterly false" assurances that users are in control of what information...

Apple recently started sending payments to select App Store developers as part of a $100 million settlement it reached in the lawsuit Cameron et al v. Apple Inc., which alleged that Apple had a monopoly on the distribution of iOS apps and in-app purchases. Apple referred to the settlement as a "Small Developer Assistance Fund." Eligible developers were expected to receive a payment between...

Cydia parent company SaurikIT, LLC has filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the company's antitrust lawsuit against Apple last month, according to court documents. SaurikIT had voluntarily asked for the case to be dismissed so the appeal process could begin at the higher court. SaurikIT sued Apple in...

Prominent developer Kosta Eleftheriou has settled his 2021 lawsuit against Apple over its App Store review actions that he said hindered his ability to distribute apps on the platform while allowing copycat competitors to flourish, reports TechCrunch. In his lawsuit, Eleftheriou complained that Apple repeatedly threw up "roadblock after roadblock" against his FlickType keyboard app for the...

The United States Justice Department is in the early stages of crafting an antitrust complaint against Apple, reports Politico. A source that spoke to the site described the lawsuit as "potential," indicating that the DOJ's plans are not yet finalized. Prosecutors within the DOJ are said to be "assembling the pieces" for a lawsuit that could be filed by the end of the year, but the decision...

Apple last year agreed to pay $95 million to settle an AppleCare-related lawsuit that accused the company of violating U.S. laws and regulations by providing customers with refurbished replacement devices instead of new devices when AppleCare repairs were required. Administrators for the case began collecting info from impacted customers back in January, and the settlement amount received...

Apple will pay $30.5 million to settle a long-running lawsuit over employee bag checks, reports Bloomberg Law. Apple initially agreed to the sum in November 2021, and now a judge has given final approval to the settlement amount. The class action lawsuit involves 14,683 California employees who were subjected to off-the-clock bag searches between July 25, 2009 and August 10, 2015. Apple was...

A proposed class action lawsuit filed against Apple today accuses the company of violating U.S. antitrust law by ensuring that Apple Pay is the only available mobile wallet for making tap-to-pay payments with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. The complaint, filed by law firms Hagens Berman and Sperling & Slater, alleges that Apple is illegally profiting at least $1 billion annually by...

Former Apple vice president of corporate law Gene Levoff has pleaded guilty to six counts of securities fraud for insider trading, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release (via The Verge). The former Apple lawyer "misappropriated material, nonpublic information about Apple's financial results and then executed trades involving the company's stock" from February 2011 to April ...

Apple has lost a bid to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by Jay Freeman, creator of an alternative App Store known as Cydia for "jailbroken" iPhones and iPads. Freeman sued Apple in late 2020, alleging that Apple has an illegal monopoly over iOS app distribution through the ‌App Store‌. His complaint also alleged that Apple has "consistently tried to snuff out alternative app...

Apple's AirPods ruptured the eardrums of a 12-year-old boy in 2020 when a loud Amber Alert was issued, according to a lawsuit filed against Apple in California (via Law360). The child, identified as B.G. in the filing, was watching a movie on Netflix on his iPhone in 2020 while wearing AirPods Pro. The ‌AirPods Pro‌ were allegedly set at a low volume, but an Amber Alert sounded without...

Apple has levied a lawsuit against RISC-V startup Rivos, a company that has hired several former high-ranking engineers from Apple. Rivos describes itself as a "startup in stealth mode," and according to Apple, Rivos not only poached Apple employees, but also stole chip trade secrets. As noted by Reuters, the lawsuit that was filed last Friday accuses Rivos of hiring more than 40 former...

Apple must face claims it illegally monopolized the U.S. market for heart-rate monitoring apps on Apple Watch, a California-based federal judge said on Monday. AliveCor, a company that that markets an ECG "KardiaBand" for the Apple Watch, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in May 2021 accusing the Cupertino company of changing the heart-rate algorithm for the Apple Watch to gain an...

Colorado resident Christopher Bryan on Wednesday filed a class action lawsuit against Apple that accuses the company of fraudulently marketing and selling the sixth-generation iPad mini despite being aware of a so-called "jelly scrolling" defect with the device, according to court documents reviewed by MacRumors. A few days after the sixth-generation iPad mini was released in September, some ...

A federal judge in the U.S. has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit that accused Apple of misleading customers about the iPhone's water resistance (via Reuters). Apple has extensively advertised the water resistance of the ‌iPhone‌ in its marketing campaigns since the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 7, including the claim that some models can survive depths of up to four meters for 30 minutes. ...

Back in October, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle an ongoing class action lawsuit that accused the company of violating various U.S. laws and regulations by providing customers with refurbished replacement devices instead of new devices when repairs were required under AppleCare. Administrators handling the case have now updated the "Replacement Device Lawsuit" website with details...