Judge Spares Apple From Responding to Individual IPhone Complaints

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila for Northern California in San Jose used a status conference Thursday to order the parties in the multiple privacy class actions against Apple to confer on the consolidation and leadership motions in the various cases, said his minute entry (docket 5:23-cv-00426). Apple “is relieved from its obligations to respond to individual complaints,” said his entry. Davila scheduled the next in-person status conference for April 27 at 11 a.m. PDT, and set an April 30 deadline for the next joint status report. All the complaints allege Apple hypocritically tries to differentiate itself from competitors with privacy assurances for its iPhone customers but flagrantly engages in tracking their usage even when they disable the tracking functions (see 2302010017).