Apple iMessage Lawsuit Ruling Sustains Wiretap Act Claims
Audet & Partners, LLP has obtained a favorable ruling against Apple in a lawsuit claiming that Apple violated federal law by intercepting text messages sent to former iMessage users who switched to Android or other non-Apple devices. In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple’s Motion to Dismiss claims alleging violations of the federal Wiretap Act. In so doing, Judge Koh held that although iMessage users may have given consent for Apple to briefly hold onto messages during the delivery process, this consent did not necessarily extend to Apple’s asserted right to intercept and hold onto such messages indefinitely.
Audet & Partners, LLP attorney, Joshua Ezrin, praised Judge Koh’s ruling in the iMessage lawsuit by asserting that Apple is “effectively taking somebody’s private messages.”
In the pending class action lawsuit, lead plaintiff Joy Backhaut has alleged that although she continued to text her husband through the iMassage system after he had traded his Apple iPhone for an HTC model, these messages were never received by her husband despite being reflected as “delivered” on her iPhone upon sending the messages. The federal Wiretap Act prohibits, among other activities, hacking into people’s computer system and misappropriating stored information.
The Complaint filed by Audet & Partners, LLP alleges that:
“Apple continues to access, intercept, collect, and not deliver the text messages sent to the non-iPhone user. The result is not some minor “inconvenience” (as Apple seeks to portray it), but the continued unlawful accessing, interception, and non-delivery of text messages.”
If you are, or have been, an iPhone user and believe that text messages sent through the iMessage app have not been delivered to the intended recipient who switched from an iPhone to a non-Apple device, you are urged to contact Audet & Partners, LLP for a free, confidential case evaluation. You can contact us either by calling (800) 965-1461, or by completing and submitting the confidential inquiry form on the right side of this page.
