Italy’s antitrust watchdog has fined Apple 10 million euros ($11.4 million) for slowing down iPhones with aging batteries. The country also hit Samsung with a fine of 5 million euros ($5.7 million) for issuing software updates to artificially slow down its mobile phones.
Apple’s got slapped with an extra 5 million euros for failing to give customers clear information about maintaining and replacing iPhone batteries.
An appeals court just reversed the 2015 decision against Apple made in a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The original court ruled that the iPhone-maker owed the university $234 million for infringing on patented microchip technology in the iPhone and iPad.
September 24, 2009: Apple lawyers head to court to defend the company against rapper Eminem’s music publisher, Eight Mile Style.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple unlawfully sold 93 of Eminem’s songs on the iTunes Music Store. This is the second time Apple finds itself on the opposite side of a courtroom from the Detroit rapper. (A previous lawsuit involved improper use of Eminem’s hit single “Lose Yourself” in an iTunes ad.)
Apple is one of five tech companies — along with Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — targeted in a new lawsuit accusing them of displaying bias against right-wing news outlets.
The lawsuit comes from Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch and a former Department of Justice prosecutor. It alleges that the companies are working together to “quash and/or limit advocacy by conservative and pro-Trump public interest groups, advocates and others to further the leftist anti-conservative agendas.”
August 14, 1991: As Apple and Microsoft head to court to battle each other, the tide begins to turn against Apple and its claims that Windows unlawfully copies the look and feel of Mac OS.
The case concerns whether key elements of Apple’s operating system are original enough for copyright protection. The decision turns out to be a major blow against Apple — and the start of Cupertino’s 1990s decline.
Apple won’t publicly admit that it tweaked the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard to fix the hardware’s biggest flaw. But in a leaked internal document, the company says it installed a new “membrane” to “prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism.”
July 16, 2014: Apple agrees to pay $450 million to resolve the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against the company over e-book pricing in the iBooks Store.
Cupertino was accused of conspiring with five major book publishers to fix e-book prices. The five publishers all settled their claims outside of court, leaving only Apple to go to trial.
An Australian court levied a A$9M ($6.7M) fine against Apple for refusing to fix iPhones and iPads because they’d had third-party repairs. That’s against the law in that country.
The refusals happened in the midst of the “Error 53” mess, in which iPhone units became permanently disabled after having their Home button replaced by non-Apple repair techs.
June 13, 2013: Eddy Cue takes the witness stand to defend Cupertino’s business strategy in the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Apple regarding e-book pricing in the iBooks Store.
Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, is the Apple exec in charge of the iBooks initiative. His testimony proves vital to a case in which potential damages climb well into the nine figures.
The decade-long Apple v. Samsung patent-infringement trial is nearing its end. A jury is expected to announce Monday whether the premier Android-maker owes Apple $1 billion for copying the iPhone’s design.
