A federal judge in San Jose has powered down a class action from an iPhone user who accused Apple of allowing smartphone apps to consume data even after users direct them to stop.
Alisdair Turner’s lawsuit against Apple specifically implicates the iOS 13 version of iPhone’s operating system. Turner alleged that although the phone’s settings allow users to toggle cellular data usage on and off for individual applications, malfunctioning code ignores the toggles.
Turner specifically alleged violations of the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and aspects of the state’s Unfair Competition Law. In an opinion filed July 16, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila denied Turner’s motion for class certification, which would’ve included anyone who owned or used an iPhone in the United States on a limited cellular data plan with any installed version of iOS 13.
Davila first noted the proposed class definition is more broad than Turner’s complaint, which focused on iOS versions 13.0-13.5. Even so, he said, there were more than 26.6 million iPhone users on just AT&T and Verizon networks from September 2019 through September 2020, and the allegations are broad enough to assuage concerns about numerosity, commonality and typicality, along with Turner’s adequacy to serve as a class representative.
