14 DAY TRIAL // The iPhone has brought Apple a great number of lawsuits, on account of various issues. The company's recent decision of bricking unlocked handsets has also triggered a great number of reactions from some users that had to suffer from it.
Apple had to answer in front of the court on the iPhone's battery changing solution, on its keyboard and even on a touchscreen copyright matter. This time, it's about the fact that the company's most recent firmware upgrade made all unlocked handsets useless.
The class-action filing complained that "Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T's cell phone service". There is also some legal background for these complaints. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 states that mobile phone owners have a right to unlock such devices for personal use.
Because of this, Apple's move to brick unlocked iPhones with the v1.1.1 firmware update was a violation of consumer rights. The problem is that some people paid the termination fee to the operator and then had the right of legally unlocking their devices. Apple destroyed them with the latest firmware upgrade, although they had done nothing illegal.
In some countries, such as France, unlocking mobile phones after a period of use is guaranteed by law. This makes Apple's decision of making the devices unusable a break of those people's rights. There are high chances that the iPhone's producer will finally understand that its decision of making unlocked handsets useless was wrong and the implications that it should trigger in time. It should be interesting to hear the court's decision and Apple's reaction, although it could take a while until it is official.