A California man has filed a class action suit against Apple claiming the company has violated antitrust law by requiring iPhone users to select AT&T as their wireless provider. The suit further claims the company "bricked" devices that had been modified to use a different wireless carrier.

"Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T's cell phone service," the suit reads. Apple had warned hackers prior to the release of the latest iPhone software update version 1.1.1. "Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty."

While many in the iPhone community expected the update to affect only devices that had been unlocked. In addition to rendering the "unlocked" phones inoperable, it also resulted in the removal of third party applications. The combination has caused quite a stir among end-users, the second time in the past month. Apple's recent price drop to $399 also sparked criticism from some of their customers. In addition to the lawsuit mentioned above, a NY woman had already filed a class action suit against Apple and AT&T for "price discrimination."

Apple has not commented on either lawsuit.

Sources: MacNN> and Computerworld.