Apple is hoping to have a group lawsuit alleging it collected data from million of customers while they used approved apps thrown out of court after arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove their claims. At a hearing in San Jose, California, on Thursday, lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to give the designate the suit a class action — but Apple says they cannot prove any harm has been done.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple allowed third-party apps to collect geographical data on their iPhones even after they had denied the app’s request for permission. The lawsuit previously targeted other companies as well — including Admob, Flurry, and Google — but they have since been dropped, leaving only Apple.
The Cupertino company has this week argued, however, that the plaintiffs have failed to prove that the tracking resulted in any harm. The attorneys have abandoned their damages claims because they cannot prove injury, but they are proceeding with the class action request “in a desperate attempt” to recover fees, according to Apple.
Back in July 2011, Apple was forced to pay one Korean man $946 in damages after a court awarded him compensation for the “Locationgate” fiasco, and thousands of others have tried to claim their own payout since then. The following month, it was reported that 27,000 iPhone users in South Korea were suing Apple for $25 million over the same issue.
Source: Bloomberg
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
