Second iPhone Bricking Lawsuit Seeks Billions

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Filed on the same day as a different iPhone bricking lawsuit, a second lawsuit seeks $1.6 billion in damages, plus punitive and other damages that could push the total to over $2 billion.

Prior to the 1.1.1 software update, Apple released a press release that said, in part:

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

The Paul Holman-Lucy Rivello lawsuit alleges violations of the federal antitrust laws and California unfair business practices laws.

It also points to the 1.1.1 update as a form of digital bullying and that the warning of “irreparable damage” to an iPhone by unlocking was a lie.

In fact, the suit says that “Apple had been busy engineering its software update so that it would disable any Third Party Apps and the SIM card unlocks. On information and belief, the update also was designed to cause damage to the iPhone in the event that any use of non-Apple/AT&T products was detected.”

Besides the financial portions of the suit, it also wants the court to void any agreement between Apple and AT&T judged unlawful and to bar the companies from any similar agreements in the future.

We Say: While I seriously doubt they will get billions, if it will force Apple and AT&T to allow unlocking of the iPhone, it would be worth it. Note that unlike other phones, if you want to travel to say, Europe, you’re SOL — AT&T will not issue you an unlock code.
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