AliveCor, the company that developed Kardiaband for the Apple Watch (to perform cardiograms) has filed an antitrust suit against Apple accusing it of "monopoly conduct."
According to AliveCor, Apple's decision to exclude other companies from developing heart rate analysis apps for the Apple Watch has hurt AliveCor and hurt patients and consumers. To accompany KardiaBand, AliveCor created the SmartRhythm app, which used data from the Apple Watch's heart rate algorithm to determine when a heart rate is irregular and prompt the user to take an ECG with the KardiaBand.
The KardiaBand was cleared by the FDA in 2017, and in 2018 Apple introduced its Apple Watch Series 4 with built-in ECG capabilities and its own notification system. AliveCor says Apple saw the success of KardiaBand and changed the functionality of watchOS to sabotage KardiaBand and "conquer the heart rate analysis market on Apple Watch."
AliveCor claims that the SmartRhythm app was initially accepted on the App Store, but Apple later claimed it violated the store's rules. AliveCor claims it has had to make adjustments to SmartRhythm on numerous occasions and eventually Apple “made changes to the watchOS heart rate algorithm” to ensure that SmartRhythm and other similar apps didn't work.
Prior to Apple's alleged sabotage, AliveCor claims that its SmartRhythm app was “simply better at identifying troubling heart-related events” and could have successfully competed with the Apple Watch's built-in functionality.
AliveCor, he says, had to remove SmartRhythm from the App Store because the arrhythmia feature wasn't working.
This isn't the first time AliveCor has filed lawsuits against Apple. He has already sued Apple several times for patent infringement, claiming that Apple copied AliveCor's cardiac sensing and sensing technology. Those lawsuits have yet to be resolved and in the new antitrust lawsuit it filed, AliveCor wants the damages to be compensated and sold to Apple in a way that "stops its abusive behavior."
