According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple deleted music that was downloaded by iPod users from rival music services between the years 2007 to 2009, without informing the users that the music files were being removed.
The allegations were reported by attorneys for consumers to the jurors in a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the company.
"You guys decided to give them the worst possible experience and blow up" the music library of users, said Patrick Coughlin one of the attorneys, to the U.S. District Court of Oakland, California.
Coughlin explained that when an iPod user attempted to sync the device to the user's iTunes library to transfer music files that have been downloaded from competing services, the program would show an error message that instructs the users to restore their iPod's factory settings.
Once the user proceeded with restoring the default settings of the device, the music files that were downloaded from competing services would be found to have been deleted.
According to Coughlin, Apple developed the program so that it would not inform the users of the problem.
To the plaintiffs working on the case, Apple's actions showed how the company was able to suppress competition several years back for music downloads and players. The plaintiffs are looking for Apple to pay damages worth $350 million for the lawsuit, claiming that Apple forced higher charges on the usage of the iPods through their actions.
However, it should be noted that under antitrust laws, the damages could reach triple that amount.
Apple responded to the allegations by saying that their moves were legitimate measures to ensure the security of the devices. Augustin Farrugia, the security director of Apple, told the court that the company did not provide users with an in-depth explanation because Apple decided that it did not need to provide users with too much information, and that the company was trying to avoid causing confusion among users.
Farrugia added that, due to hackers such as "Requiem" and "DVD Jon," Apple became "very paranoid" in their protection of iTunes. The updates that users downloaded which caused the deletion of music not downloaded from Apple were meant to protect the users from hacking breaches.
Evidence showed that the late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, was among those concerned about possible hacking activities by music pirates.
Eddy Cue, the software chief of Apple, and Phil Schiller, its marketing head, will testify in the case within the week.
