A federal judge has granted class action status to a monopoly lawsuit against Apple and AT&T.
According to AP, the lawsuit consolidates several lawsuits from late 2007 and 2008 and claims that, since AT&T was Apple's exclusive iPhone partner in the U.S. for five years, Apple had locked consumers who had signed a two-year contract into a five-year contract with AT&T.
The lawsuit also complains that Apple drove prices up and hurt competition by controlling which apps the device owners can install. However, judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed claims that Apple broke laws when an update to the iPhone's OS caused problems with some iPhones and deleted programs users had purchased.
The suit seeks damages to cover legal fees and other costs, as well as an injunction to keep Apple from selling locked iPhones in the U.S., as well as regulating which apps users can install.
This is more bad news for Apple and AT&T which have recently been slapped with a class action lawsuit over the antenna reception issues in iPhone 4.