A Silicon Valley firm has filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple of cornering the market for heart-rate monitoring know-how for the Apple Watch, and endangering wearers’ well being. In a grievance filed late on Tuesday evening, AliveCor Inc stated Apple shut out rivals by altering the heart-rate algorithm on its watch’s working system, making rival know-how incompatible. AliveCor sells KardiaBand, an Apple Watch wristband able to recording an electrocardiogram, and SmartRhythm, an app that alerts customers to irregular heartbeats.
The privately held firm accused Apple, whose market worth exceeds $2 trillion, of quietly “working within the background” to copy its ability to record an ECG on the Apple Watch, and to provide a separate app for heart-rate analysis. “As it has done multiple times over the years in other markets, Apple decided that it would not accept competition on the merits,” AliveCor stated in its grievance filed in San Francisco federal court docket.
“The worth of controlling such vital well being knowledge (with the accompanying means to take advantage of it) was apparently an excessive amount of of a temptation for Apple,” it added. “To gain an unfair competitive edge, Apple put countless AliveCor users’ lives in danger.” Apple didn’t instantly reply on Wednesday to requests for remark.
The Cupertino, California-based firm has apps for taking ECGs, and measuring coronary heart charges at relaxation or throughout exercises. AliveCor is in search of unspecified triple damages, citing Apple’s alleged “willful” effort to create a monopoly. The Mountain View, California-based company in December sued Apple for patent infringement in Texas, and in April asked the US International Trade Commission to ban imports of Apple Watches.
AliveCor is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a litigation specialist with more than 800 lawyers. The case is AliveCor Inc v Apple Inc, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 21-03958.
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