Jury Finds Apple Not Guilty in iPod Antitrust Lawsuit

An eight-person jury reached a verdict in the iPod antitrust lawsuit today, determining that Apple was not guilty of violating any antitrust laws.

The jury found that iTunes 7.0, which was released in fall 2006, was a "genuine product improvement" that brought new features for consumers. On the other hand, the plaintiffs in the case argued that the iTunes update only thwarted competition since it made transferring music from other companies to the iPod more difficult.

If Apple had been found guilty, it would have faced damages of more than $1 billion; however, the original complaint only asked for damages of $350 million to pay the 8 million people who bought iPods between 2006 and 2009.


"We thank the jury for their service and we applaud their verdict," Apple said in a statement. "We created iPod and iTunes to give our customers the world’s best way to listen to music. Every time we've updated those products — and every Apple product over the years — we’ve done it to make the user experience even better."

The plaintiff's head attorney says an appeal is already planned, so while Apple is off the hook for now, the case could drag on.

via The Verge