In antitrust suit, heart rate app says Apple sabotaged its product

A Mountain View company that makes a heart rate analysis app filed an antitrust complaint accusing Apple Inc. of updating its operating system to make it inoperable with the company's watch, thus sabotaging the development.

Attorneys for AliveCor Inc. argued in the complaint, filed Tuesday, that the plaintiff and other heart rate analysis providers have been excluded from the Apple Watch.

The Cupertino-based technology giant first worked cooperatively with AliveCor when it was introducing the watch and the private company developed an app to help patients monitor and analyze their heart rate, according to the complaint. Apple subsequently introduced its own version of the product.

In the complaint, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP partner Adam B. Wolfson wrote that AliveCor first had to adapt to allegations by Apple that it violated App Store guidelines and managed to do so.

"Faced with AliveCor's tenacity, Apple next resorted to behind-the-scenes acts of sabotage, consisting primarily of undocumented updates to the Apple Watch's operating system, WatchOS," Wolfson wrote.

A subsequent operating system update forced AliveCor to remove its SmartRhythm app from Apple's App Store completely, the Los Angeles attorney added.

Instead of competing fairly, the Apple update's "purpose and effect was simply to prevent third parties from identifying irregular heart rate situations and, thus, from offering competing heart rate analysis apps," Wolfson wrote. Alivecor Inc. v. Apple Inc., 21-CV03958 (N.D. Cal., filed May 25, 2021).

An Apple spokesperson could not be reached Wednesday for comment on the lawsuit, which accuses the company of monopolization in violation of the Sherman Act, attempted monopolization, and a state claim of unfair competition.

The complaint was filed on the same day Apple wrapped up oral arguments in an antitrust trial filed by Epic Games that revolved in part over whether the App Store is operated as an illegal monopoly.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland indicated she would issue a ruling in the Epic Games lawsuit this summer. Epic Games v. Apple Inc., 20-CV05640 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 13, 2020).

The Alivecor lawsuit was assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, but Wolfson moved Wednesday to have the case heard before a district judge.

Aside from violating antitrust law, Apple was also endangering patients, Alivecor's founder said. "With the increasing importance of wearable medical technology, patients and customers need the best products at the lowest price," David E. Albert said in a statement. "Apple's actions deprive them of both."

Alivecor also has sued Apple, accusing it of patent infringement, in the U.S. International Trade Commission. The commission voted May 20 to investigate. In the Matter of Certain Wearable Electronic Devices with ECG Functionality and Components Thereof, 337-TA-1266 (ITC, filed April 20, 2021).

A related patent infringement lawsuit in the Western District of Texas has been stayed pending the commission proceeding.