Apple Says Users’ Privacy Claims Fall Far Short

(CN) - Apple says it deserves summary judgment in a federal class action that says iPhones and iPads collect and distribute users' personal information.

The multidistrict litigation at issue involves 19 class action hopefuls, centralized before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif. It advances claims that Apple conspires with application developers to capture users' Unique Device ID's (UDID), the unique identifying number Apple assigns to each of its iPhones and iPads, and hands it off to third parties without consent.

Though Koh upheld portions of the first amended complaint in June 2012, Apple now says there has been enough development to warrant summary judgment on the entire third amended consolidated class action complaint.

"The lawsuit never should have been brought," according to the motion authored by Gibson Dunn attorney S. Ashlie Beringer. "There was never a factual basis for it, never a law broken and never a person harmed. Plaintiffs invented 'facts' to circumvent the court's Sept. 20, 2012 order dismissing the complaint for lack of standing. Discovery has now definitely established those alleged 'facts' to be without a basis."

Apple claims that the plaintiffs lacks Article III standing and have failed to prove allegations of violations of California's Unfair Competition Law and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

"Apple now has deposed all four of the named plaintiffs and has conducted a forensic analysis of plaintiffs' iPhones," Beringer added.

Deposition showed that, "contrary to their allegations, plaintiffs admit they have not suffered any injury in fact," the motion states. "Specifically, plaintiffs admit they have suffered no harm whatsoever - not in 'consumed iDevice resources' or in any other way."

Apple says the plaintiffs "admit" that they have not lost any money or property, that they do not really know if their information was tracked or distributed, and that the Apple's alleged misrepresentations did not inform their decision to buy iPhones.

Four days after Apple filed this Dec. 14 motion for summary judgment, it filed a very similar second motion.

On Dec. 17, in between these two Apple filings, the plaintiffs moved for class certification.

Koh is scheduled to resolve the certification issue on Feb. 28, 2013, while the summary judgment issue is slated for a hearing on April 11, 2013.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit