Apple Hit With Securities Fraud Lawsuit for Hiding iPhone Sales Drop

Apple is facing a class action lawsuit accusing the company of securities fraud for making false statements and failing to disclose adverse information regarding its business prospects. These actions allegedly led to an artificially inflated stock price.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Apple was not initially forthcoming about a drop in demand for the iPhone due to poor sales in China and the 2018 battery replacement program, both of which contributed to lower than expected ‌iPhone‌ sales in the first fiscal quarter of 2019.

iphonexr
Apple is also accused of hiding the fact that production orders from suppliers had been slashed and prices had been cut, Apple's decision not to provide unit sales for iPhones and other hardware is also cited as a method Apple used to cause stock prices to rise to $209 per share.

When Apple did reveal the dip in ‌iPhone‌ sales and announced that it would not make its quarterly revenue forecast, Apple's stock fell $15 per share from $157.92 on January 2 to $142.19 per share on January 3. According to the lawsuit, Apple knew its ‌iPhone‌ sales weren't on track months before the information was shared.

The lawsuit, filed by the City of Roseville employees' retirement fund, is aiming to recover damages on behalf of people who purchased Apple stock between November 2, 2018 and January 2, 2019. Tim Cook and Luca Maestri are both named as defendants.

Update: A second law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, which is essentially identical to the first lawsuit. It also accuses Apple of securities fraud for concealing the ‌iPhone‌'s decline in sales.

Popular Stories

Apple Logo Black

Apple Just Made Its Second-Biggest Acquisition Ever After Beats

Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio. Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014. Q.ai has...
Aston Martin CarPlay Ultra Screen

Apple's CarPlay Ultra to Expand to These Vehicle Brands Later This Year

Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon. In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. In his Powe...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

Apple Changes How You Order a Mac

Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
Apple Logo Black

Apple's Next Launch is 'Imminent'

Sunday February 1, 2026 12:31 pm PST by
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models. "All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

New MacBook Pros Reportedly Launching Alongside macOS 26.3

Sunday February 1, 2026 5:42 am PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...

Top Rated Comments

ryanwarsaw Avatar
89 months ago
Some people sold their stock too low and now comes the crying.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thadoggfather Avatar
89 months ago
The fish rots from its head: Tim Crook

Really don't like what the guys been doing over the years, stalling consumer technology progress.

apple securities fraud lawsuit image
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Baymowe335 Avatar
89 months ago
Looks like the market is devastated with AAPL up 2% today and marching higher again.

People get mad when then sell stock too low.

They didn’t “hide” anything. They told investors they would no longer report unit sales in 2019, which is their choice. You could sell if you thought that ruined the company (lol).

Tons of public companies don’t report metrics investors might like to know. Ever look at Google’s financials? Impossible to understand. No Pixel sales. Microsoft doesn’t report unit sales for their hardware and Samsung doesn’t even report Galaxy unit sales.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
89 months ago
He is scum and a charlatan.
He’s a great philanthropic law-abiding citizen who has done more for the world than almost anyone posting here.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AngerDanger Avatar
89 months ago
The fish rots from its head: Tim Crook
Let's try this again…



In this case, we're talking about the head that revolutionized Apple's supply chain, buying up millions of CNC machines the early 200s, and enabling Jony Ive's designs to be realized on a mass scale, right? Prior to Cook's intervention, Macs were made in multiple countries with parts being flown back and forth at various stages of assembly. A part from California would by flown to Amsterdam for additional work before being flown back to California.

Really don't like what the guys been doing over the years, stalling consumer technology progress.
Again, he's responsible for coordinating manufacturing that every tech company on the world has adopted as standard. I just got done with Ive's biography, and it seems to me that people advocating against Cook have a rather myopic view of Apple.

At the turn of the century, Apple was like every other tech company; engineers made things and then designers added their "skinned" them. Jobs returned a few days before Ive wanted to quit and reemphasized Apple's ethos: to make great products.

Everything was turned on its head. Function followed form; if the Mac mini were a couple mm larger, it could've housed a less expensive full-sized drive, but Ive and Jobs had twenty models constructed and liked the feeling of the ever-so-slightly-smaller design.

The unibody enclosures that are now characteristic of Apple products were only possible because of the manufacturing Tim secured, the complaints that Animoji and other superficial **** are taking focus away from functionality mirror those of people who believed that Apple's stupid attention to form inhibited function. And Apple's prices have always sucked; the Mac, the iMac, and the iPod were all extremely pricey relative to the competition and their own intended prices.

Nonetheless, Apple has pushed the industry forward, and each of Ive's reductionist designs are copied by all of the competition about half a decade later. No disk drive on the iMac, no CD drive on 2012 MacBooks, and no headphone jack on the iPhone. Some of these decisions were executed under Jobs and are now carried out by Tim.

tl;dr: you can put an "r" between "C" and "ook" all you want, you can claim you're thinking different (even though it's similar to a lotta thinking on this site), but that doesn't change the fact that the Animoji-obsessed, price gouging Tim Cook has pushed the industry forward and is partially responsible for all of Apple's success since the early 2000s.

Attachment Image
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oghowie Avatar
89 months ago
These lawsuits are so dumb.

What if I told you Apple stock is back at $200 now?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)