AT&T And Apple Now Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Status
A federal court judge has approved a lawsuit which alleges that both AT&T and Apple abused their power when they locked the iPhone. The judge moves the case onward now as a class action lawsuit which can include anyone that had bought the iPhone along with a two year contract.
What the case claims is that Apple formed a secret monopoly with AT&T when it gave the carrier five years of exclusive iPhone rights in the United States. Additionally, the claim is that this stifled the competition and drove up the prices.
Basically the customers would in essence be locked into a five year relationship with AT&T even if their phone contract isn’t for five years due to the fact that they couldn’t use their iPhone with any other provider during that time due to the fact that there’s the exclusivity pact in place.
So the court has now allowed multiple plaintiffs to actually represent over 20 million consumers who’ve been forced into using AT&T for their iPhone data and voice service plans despite the fact that there’s an agreement which would allow the termination and carrier switching at any time.
In the court documents, which were filed last week, the United States District Judge Ware stated that there were portions of the case which deal with antitrust law violations and that it would continue on as a class action suit involving those consumers who purchased their iPhone with a two year AT&T contract.
This includes the iPhone:
• 4
• 3GS
• 3G
• 2G
In addition the lawsuit seeks an injunction of Apple selling any locked iPhone in the United States.
Apple states that the disclosure of the exclusivity with AT&T was widespread and that there was absolutely no suggestion by either Apple or anyone else that their iPhone would ever be unlocked after the initial two year agreement. They went on to state that it’s total speculation and completely illogical that not disclosing the five year exclusivity term would ever produce any monopoly power.
In the recent weeks both AT&T and Apple have faced many suits and those additional ones stem from the reception and antenna complains on the iPhone 4.
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Tags: AT&T, Cell phone plans, iphone