June 9, 2022

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Apple of defrauding customers by selling iPhones and iPads with two cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Apple’s customers filed the lawsuit after the company and several other tech companies disclosed the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in 2018, which allow attackers to access computer devices and steal their memory content.

In their lawsuit against Apple, the company’s customers alleged that Apple was aware of the flaws in June 2017 but did not say anything until the New York Times reported the flaws.

While giving the final verdict, Judge Davila said that customers could not prove that they had paid too much for their devices because Apple had knowingly concealed bugs and provided security patches that made their devices significantly slower.

Davila also pointed out that customers had not shown that they relied on Apple’s marketing, and that the company’s claims that its products are “secure” and built “with your privacy in mind” were too general to support their claims.

Finally, the judge said it was not wrong or misleading for Apple to claim that its newer processors are faster and last longer than old processors just because the patches may have compromised performance.

The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.