Apple is dealing with a lot of lawsuits over the years; the company is never shy about filing a few too. One of the more recent lawsuits was filed back in August 2014, when a class action lawsuit against Apple was filed. There were a number of people that sued Apple for undelivered text messages.
The class action was first filed in May, 2014. In it, the people behind the lawsuit claimed that text messages sent to Android phones were not delivered because Apple had interfered with them directly.
In August 2015, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh dismissed the claim entirely. Although iMessage may be responsible for the lost or undelivered text messages, Apple wasn’t actually ‘interfering’ with the process. Users must manually turn off their iMessage function before switching to a non-iOS – in this case, Android – phone. The case was also dismissed because the group of people suing Apple failed to produce enough evidence that prove their claims.
That claim dismissal, however, wasn’t the end of it. Three of the people involved in the original lawsuit persisted and filed for another claim against Apple. This time, the three individual suing Apple used the Federal Wire Tap Act to back their new claim.
They said that Apple deliberately violated the Federal Wire Tap Act by intercepting their messages. The new lawsuit was still based on the fact that text messages weren’t delivered to new Android phones upon switching from an iOS device.
Today, the new lawsuit gets dismissed again. This time, for a number of good reasons. As quoted from Business Insider, the three individuals filing the lawsuit were not able to supply sufficient evidence of their claims. It is also reported that two of the three individuals behind the lawsuit got rid of their iPhones after filing for a lawsuit against Apple.
These may seem mundane at first, but selling and getting rid of the iPhones in question mean the three individuals can no longer prove that Apple is tampering with their messages.
“They are thus unable to demonstrate whether texts sent to their phone numbers went to their Apple or Android devices, Apple claimed. One of the plaintiffs also previously asked that she be dismissed as a “named plaintiff” in the case.”
U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh dismissed the lawsuit with a swift, single-paragraph order.
“The Court has granted the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant Apple Inc. See ECF No. 112. Accordingly, the Clerk of the Court shall enter judgment in favor of Defendant. The Clerk shall close the file. IT IS SO ORDERED.”
Since the original lawsuit, Apple has acknowledged the bug in iMessage and has created a web interface for disabling user’s iMessage functionality.
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