If You Didn’t Like the Agreement Associated with the Apple iPhone, You Should Have Just Walked Away

Another frivolous lawsuit has been filed. This time, it involves Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc.

A federal judge has allowed a case against Apple and AT&T to move forward as a class action.  The companies are being accused of monopoly abuse.  This lawsuit will consolidate several that have been filed by consumers who purchased iPhones beginning in 2007.

Here are some of the issues that are raised in this ridiculous lawsuit:

• The amount of control Apple has over the applications iPhone owners are allowed to install on the devices.
• Apple’s practice of “locking” iPhones so that they could only be used on AT&T’s network.
• The claim that Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive iPhone partner in the United States for five years.
• Consumers agreed to two-year contracts with the wireless carrier, but were “in effect locked into a five-year relationship with AT&T.”
• These actions by the companies allegedly "hurt competition and drove up prices for consumers."

According to court documents, portions of the lawsuit that address violations of antitrust law will continue on as a class action.  The class is comprised of all consumers who purchased iPhones with a two-year AT&T agreement since June 2007.

This lawsuit is stupid.  If you didn’t like the idea of a two-year agreement with AT&T, which was apparently required to get the iPhone, you should have just walked away. This is Apple’s business.  Making the decision to purchase an iPhone is completely voluntary.