Apple fails to end lawsuit claiming it disabled FaceTime on older iPhones

Apple has failed to dodge a lawsuit which claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant purposefully disabled FaceTime on iOS 6 to force users to upgrade to iOS 7.

According to a report in CNET on Monday, the company has failed in its bid to dismiss the lawsuit and the US District Judge Lucy Koh has ruled that iPhone 4 and 4S users can pursue claims against Apple.

"Plaintiffs claim that Apple intentionally 'broke' FaceTime in order to reduce the cost routing calls through third-party servers," the report noted.

In a bid to save itself from the lawsuit, Apple claimed that the users did not suffer an economic loss since FaceTime is a free feature.

"Plaintiffs paid for their iPhones and FaceTime is a 'feature' of the iPhone and thus a component of the iPhone's cost. Indeed, Apple advertised FaceTime as one more thing that makes an iPhone an iPhone," Koh said while dismissing Apple's claims.