Court Rejects Apple Request to Move West Virginia Lawsuit

A federal court rejected an attempt by Apple Inc. to move a consumer protection lawsuit to federal jurisdiction, remanding the case back to West Virginia state courts. The lawsuit, filed in February 2026 by West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, alleges that the company's business and product-design decisions prioritize profits and privacy branding over child safety, effectively safeguarding child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from detection.

McCuskey claims Apple abandoned commitments to deploy available detection technology and lagged behind competitors in reporting exploitation. The state's complaint notes that in 2023, Apple filed only 267 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, while Google and Meta filed millions. Internal communications cited in the suit allegedly describe Apple as the "greatest platform for distributing child porn."

Apple argued that its mandatory reporting requirements granted it federal officer jurisdiction. The court disagreed with this interpretation. In response to the remand order, Apple has filed a notice to appeal.