Lawsuit Against Apple and AT&T Receives Class-Action Status

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Posted July 9, 2010 at 7:35pm by iClarified

A lawsuit alleging that Apple and AT&T have formed a monopoly with their exclusive iPhone agreement has received class-action status, according to Wired.

Judge James Ware of the U.S. District court for the Northern District of California on Thursday granted class certification of plaintiffs’ antitrust claims seeking damages and injunctive relief for the complaint titled “Apple & ATTM Antitrust Litigation.”

Lead counsel Mark Rifkin tells Wired that the terms of AT&T’s two-year customer contract say that customers have the option to terminate whenever they wish for a fee to switch to another carrier. However, since the iPhone is only offered on AT&T, customers can't go anywhere else and are still locked down to the carrier.

“The court has allowed [multiple] plaintiffs to represent 20 million consumers who have been forced to use AT&T for iPhone voice and data service, despite an agreement that allows them to terminate at any time and presumably switch carriers,” Rifkin said.

Apple argues that “[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity and no suggestion by Apple or anyone else that iPhones would become unlocked after two years. Moreover, it is sheer speculation – and illogical – that failing to disclose the five-year exclusivity term would produce monopoly power.”

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Lawsuit Against Apple and AT&T Receives Class-Action Status

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jeremy - July 12, 2010 at 12:26am

As someone who has three lines on t-mobile and one on att for my 3gs i can feel were a lot of ppl are coming from on this. I sold one of my t-mobile lines to a coworker who needed a phone so i could get an iphone. When i bought it purplera1n was out with ultrasn0w to unlock. I thought about using my free third line from an ex for my iphone but relised at the time there was no point. T-moble in the phoenix area had no 3g coverage. So y do it? So i stayed on att. Now in my area i can say the service sucks. How can i go outside my house and b on 3g walk into my house and get kicked off to edge? That irritated me.. But i still didnt leave att. Now the point behind that is there has always up until fw 3.1.3 been an unlock with a jb. And since the begining of cell phones there has been exclusive contract to get ur business. Remember before the storm only on verizion that if u wanted a bb u had to have t-mobile? To get a palm pre or i think any palm for that u need sprint. Its all business. Its all fpr money. Get it and stay on the carrier that provides it or jb and unlock it when either dev team geohot comex cronic dev or someone new comes out with it. Living all over the country and having a phone from every carrier out there i can tell u that everyone has their spots wherw their service blows and someone elses is better. Until there is one company that controls all other companys there will always b exclusove comtracts deadzones and bitching... Get over it get on the companies network that has the phone you want and dont sign a contract so when the next hot phone comes out u can have that one too!

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Tara - July 10, 2010 at 4:00pm

Perhaps you do not understand. At your request Verizon will unlock Storm abd you can use it on AT&T or T-Mobile. Similarily all phones in the USA are subject to unlock as per previous Fed Lawsuit. iphone should be no exception. As per terms and conditions if you break the contract then AT&T will charge you $325. That means you paid about $616 ($199+$315+$36+$80 one month bill) and you have a brick. The other fairthing will be either you unlock at the end of your contract or Apple should have a buy back program. How You buy a car with 5 year financing and then at the end the manufacturer tells you car is yours but I will let you keep it but you can not drive it. Somebody should have filed this law suit 2 years ago like Italy, Belgium, Australia and many other countries where all iphones are sold factory unlocked. In America a big corporate takes advantage of public. In most countries of the world you do not get charged for the incomong calls on mobile phones, but in USA the carriers do. It is called corporate greed and in USA they can get away with it because law makers are slow to act.

Mike - July 10, 2010 at 12:12am

This should be an interesting one to watch but it's gonna take forever

Matt - July 10, 2010 at 12:26am

Yeah, class action lawsuits usually benefit the attorneys lol

brandon - July 9, 2010 at 9:46pm

They should allow a factory unlock especially if it was purchased outright and not plug the unlock every update

Enrico - July 9, 2010 at 10:43pm

..and you stuck it to yourself in the process.. test your bandwidth when not using wifi...

Gigi - July 9, 2010 at 11:05pm

I am not using Tmobil's data only voice. I feel good knowing that I am not bullied by AT&T or Apple.

Mike - July 10, 2010 at 12:11am

Nice plan

ztpc - July 9, 2010 at 8:39pm

This is a manifestation of U.S. consumers lose their freedom. Simlock=*uckup

Me2010 - July 9, 2010 at 8:05pm

So this lawsuit isn't even the one about the death grip. hahaha now that the closet door is open, it's going to be hard to keep all them skeletons in there.