San Francisco, CA: A federal judge has given the green light to a class action lawsuit against Apple and AT&T's mobile phone business, effectively merging several individual lawsuits brought against the two companies.
The suits, filed by iPhone purchasers in late 2007 allege monopoly abuse. The class action is seeking an injunction to stop Apple from selling "locked" iPhones. Locked iPhones can only be used on the AT&T mobile network in the US. According to media reports, the suit also alleges that Apple privately made AT&T its sole iPhone partner for five years in the US, and that while some consumers agreed to two-year contracts with AT&T when they purchased their iPhones, they were effectively 'locked in' to five year contracts.
In addition to these allegations and demands, the class action reportedly also seeks to prevent Apple from continuing to dictate what iPhone programs users can and can't install on their devices.
The class includes anyone who purchased an iPhone with a two-year AT&T agreement since the iPhone initially went on the market in June 2007.
