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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Suit Over IPhone Upgrade Program Dropped

An Apple customer who claimed the tech giant willfully kept upgrades from its most loyal customers in order to drive revenue dropped his lawsuit on Friday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) – An Apple customer who claimed the tech giant willfully kept upgrades from its most loyal customers in order to drive revenue dropped his lawsuit on Friday.

Emil Frank, a Brooklyn resident who bought the iPhone Upgrade Program, filed a federal class action in September claiming that Apple did not live up to the promises it made customers who purchased the program.

The program, unveiled in 2015, promised Apple members the opportunity to upgrade to annual new versions of the iPhone as long as certain conditions were met — in this case 12 payments within 6 months, according to the complaint.

Essentially the company promised to give those enrolled in the program access to the newest and best technology, but Frank complained it failed to do this when the iPhone 7 came out in September.

"This is not just a problem created by the limited supply of the newly released iPhones," Frank said in the lawsuit. "Rather, Apple intentionally limited the inventory available to iPhone Upgrade Program customers (who are already contractually locked into making monthly payments for their old devices) to capture sales from new customers who weren't already part of the program." [Parentheses in complaint.]

It is unclear why Frank chose to drop the case.

Apple did not comment when the first complaint was filed, and did not return request for comment on Friday. Frank’s lawyers did not return an email seeking comment.

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Categories / Courts, Technology

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