Apple to pay $25,000 per day for withholding evidence vs. Qualcomm Inc.
Apple has been fined by a court for refusing to give concrete evidence against Qualcomm Inc.
Nathanael Cousins, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in San Jose, California ordered Apple to pay $25,000 starting Dec. 16 for each day that they fail to produce evidence for the lawsuit they filed against Qualcomm Inc. According to Bloomberg, the penalty is equal to the profit Apple made every 16 seconds in the last fiscal year.
Apple piggybacked on Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suit versus Qualcomm Inc., which accuses Qualcomm of forcing the U.S. smartphone maker to use their chips exclusively in return for lower licensing fees. The said deal is unfairly cutting out U.S. mobile phone chips producers.
Since filing the lawsuit in January 2017, Apple has been taking their time in producing the necessary evidence and documents needed for the case. Apple claimed earlier in November that they will have produced 2.6 million documents by Friday, Dec. 15.
Apple, who has until Friday, Dec. 29, plans on talking to the court on reversing their decision.
In other related news, Apple is currently facing two class-action lawsuits after revealing to the public that they have intentionally slowed down older iPhone models. The lawsuits were filed on Thursday, Dec. 21.
According to The Guardian, several locals from Chicago, Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina accused Apple of fraudulently forcing iPhone owners to purchase their latest devices. Meanwhile, Californian locals Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas are seeking damages against Apple and are asking for compensation.
Apple revealed to the public on Wednesday, Dec. 20 that they were intentionally slowing down older iPhone models mainly because of the devices' lithium-ion batteries. This kind of battery becomes less capable after a hundred charges which result in the phone randomly shutting down.
To fix the shutdown issue, Apple released a software update for the iPhone 5, 5s, iPhone 6, 6S, 6S Plus, and is even planning on releasing it on the iPhone 7 that slows down the devices' processing power.
