Legal News

Judge consolidates iPhone suits into class action

By Richard Binder

Class action suits over the iPhone 4. A new Consumer Reports study that gives the thumbs-down to the iPhone 4's antenna. And now this:

Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has consolidated several lawsuits filed by iPhone buyers against AT&T and Apple and has given class action status to the parts of the lawsuit that deal with violations to antitrust law. Anyone who bought an iPhone from its launch date in 2007 to the present day is eligible to join the class.

Front and center in the suit is Apple's policy of hardware "locking," so the iPhones can only be used on AT&T's network, and Apple's iron fist on the applications users can install.  Additionally, the suit claims Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive iPhone partner for five years, thus assuring that iPhone consumers were locked into five years with the carrier, even while offering two-year contracts with the iPhone. 

Apple says it made no secret of its five-year exclusivity with AT&T and it is "sheer speculation" that failing to disclose would have produced a monopoly.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 13, 2010 (boomark / email).