Users who switch from Apple's iPhones to Android-based devices have historically faced the problem of missing text messages for up to several days because of Apple's iMessage system. One user has decided to sue the company over the "vanishing" text messages. Reuters reports:
Apple Inc was ordered to face a U.S. federal lawsuit claiming it failed to tell consumers that its messaging system would block them from receiving text messages if they switched to Android-based smartphones from iPhones.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California said Apple must face plaintiff Adrienne Moore's claim that the message blocking interfered with her contract with Verizon Wireless for wireless service, which she kept after switching in April to a Samsung Galaxy S5 from an iPhone 4.
Moore, who seeks class-action status and unspecified damages, claimed that Apple failed to disclose how its iOS 5 software operating system would obstruct the delivery of "countless" messages from other Apple device users if iPhone users switched to non-Apple devices.
In a Monday night decision, Koh said Moore deserved a chance to show Apple disrupted her wireless service contract and violated a California unfair competition law, by blocking messages meant for her.
"Plaintiff does not have to allege an absolute right to receive every text message in order to allege that Apple's intentional acts have caused an actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship," Koh wrote.
In July, Apple AAPL 0.80% said in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the company never claimed iMessages and Messages would be able to recognize a user’s smartphone switch and that Moore’s contract with Verizon does not guarantee her the right to receive every text message that is sent to her. But Judge Lucy Koh said on Monday that Moore does not have to prove she is entitled to receive every single text message sent to her in order to show that Apple may have interfered with her Verizon contract.
Moore filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and any other customers who may have lost access to texts due to a similar circumstance in an attempt to gain class action status, which the court has not yet granted.
Moore’s lawsuit claims that Apple knows about problems iMessage and Messages users have in receiving texts after switching to a rival brand of smartphone, but the company does not do enough to inform customers about the issue. (The complaint even cites a Business Insider article that apparently includes an Apple employee admitting the company knows about the issue.) Moore alleges that she visited the Help Page on Apple’s website earlier this year, but says she found it to be misleading when discussing problems with undelivered messages, and she says a representative she spoke with over the phone could not remedy the issue. (The company does now have a page on its website dedicated to helping new owners of non-Apple devices deregister iMessage to retrieve texts.)
