Back in January 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities that affected a wide range of processors from Intel and ARM, including those used in Apple's Macs and iOS devices.

Meltdown and Spectre were hardware-based vulnerabilities designed to take advantage of the speculative execution mechanism of a CPU, allowing hackers to gain access to sensitive information.

meltdownspectre
Apple quickly mitigated Spectre and Meltdown with software patches, but a class action complaint was filed against Apple alleging that Apple knew about the design defects in June 2017 and did not more promptly inform the public.

The complaint also suggested that Apple would not be able to adequately patch Meltdown and Spectre without slowing the performance of its processors by between five and 30 percent, a claim that turned out to be untrue.

As pointed out by AppleInsider, the class action lawsuit against Apple was today dismissed for "lack of standing and failure to state a claim."

According to the ruling, the plaintiffs in the case were not able to allege injury because none of their devices were accessed via Spectre or Meltdown and no degradation in performance was personally experienced by the plaintiffs.

Furthermore, the court said that even if some devices were affected by Meltdown and Spectre as evidenced in some of the benchmarks submitted by the plaintiffs, it does not suggest that all users experienced slower performance, nor were the plaintiffs able to prove that their iOS devices diminished in value.

Given these reasons, Apple's motion to dismiss was granted, though the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are able to provide an amended complaint by January 24, 2019.

Top Rated Comments

SecuritySteve Avatar
93 months ago
Good. It's not Apple's fault they adhered to industry standards regarding vulnerability disclosure. These vulnerabilities were overhyped and still are perceived as far worse than they actually are.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Doctor Q Avatar
93 months ago
Let's sue Apple for announcing new products, which causes those of us who bought their previous products to no longer have the latest models, and to lack any new features they've added. This causes untold pain and suffering, not to mention damage to our reputations among peers. We deserve to be compensated!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
m4mario Avatar
93 months ago
When there is no basis for the case and the plaintiffs are merely trying to take advantage of the legal system to make money, the plantiffs, or at least the lawyers must face a fine. Repetition should face jail time. we can't let people waste the courts time like this.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Starship67 Avatar
93 months ago
Let's sue Apple for announcing new products, which causes those of us who bought their previous products to no longer have the latest models, and to lack any new features they've added. This causes untold pain and suffering, not to mention damage to our reputations among peers. We deserve to be compensated!
I know your joking. The way some of the members on this forum act they believe that. lol
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
93 months ago
When there is no basis for the case and the plaintiffs are merely trying to take advantage of the legal system to make money, the plantiffs, or at least the lawyers must face a fine. Repetition should face jail time. we can't let people waste the courts time like this.
The lawyers and plaintiffs that started this stupid lawsuit should be sued/fined …. for wasting resources of the courts.
What are you guys talking about? No resources or time were wasted.

This case was filed about a year ago, during which time it sat with pretty much no meaningful action other than being consolidated with other cases. Then Apple filed a motion to dismiss, plaintiffs responded, an oral hearing was held that lasted 1 hour and 14 minutes, and the Judge issued an 9-page mostly-boilerplate older dismissing the case.

All in, this case probably used 1.5 hours of Judge time and 3 hours of clerk time. It was efficiently handled. This is an example showing that the system works. (of course there are examples of where it doesn't, but this isn't it at all, not even close).

If Apple wants, they can be the ones to further burden the courts time by seeking costs, but I doubt they will. I bet Apple's legal fees for this one motion were ~$10k, only because they probably hired a big expensive firm that threw a few associates at problem. The same outcome could have been achieved from a small firm for under $5k. It's not worth their time to seek costs.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
93 months ago
Maybe some of the other nonsensical suits against apple will be dismissed as well.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

m5 macbook pro deal

Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works. We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3

Wednesday February 11, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, the latest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out in September. The new software comes almost two months after Apple released iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, ...
Apple Logo Zoomed

Apple Expected to Launch These 10+ Products Over the Coming Months

Tuesday February 10, 2026 6:33 am PST by
It has been a slow start to 2026 for Apple product launches, with only a new AirTag and a special Apple Watch band released so far. We are still waiting for MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the iPhone 17e, a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip, long-rumored updates to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, and much more. Apple is expected to release/update the following products...
iPhone 16e Bottom Crop

Apple Reportedly Unveiling a New iPhone Next Week

Tuesday February 10, 2026 1:51 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report said the iPhone 17e will be announced in a press release on the Apple Newsroom website, so do not expect an event for this device specifically. The iPhone 17e will be a spec-bumped successor to the iPhone 16e. Rumors claim the device will have four key...
Apple Logo Black

Apple Acquires New Database App

Wednesday February 11, 2026 6:44 am PST by
Apple acquired Canadian graph database company Kuzu last year, it has emerged. The acquisition, spotted by AppleInsider, was completed in October 2025 for an undisclosed sum. The company's website was subsequently taken down and its Github repository was archived, as is commonplace for Apple acquisitions. Kuzu was "an embedded graph database built for query speed, scalability, and easy of ...