Image: Lea Aharonovitch/Flickr
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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When the iPhone launched more than 10 years ago, it spawned a giant industry of third-party accessory makers. According to one estimate, the market of Apple accessories last year was valued at $19.9 billion. Apple has a relatively friendly relationship with these manufacturers, providing them with a 304-page document outlining design guidelines. But there have been rifts. In 2016, the company hired the lobbying firm Roffe Group to "assist Apple with NYC permitting of street vendors near Apple store" who sell third-party cases, which are usually cheaper than Apple-manufactured cases, according to a document obtained by Motherboard. The same year, Apple accused a company called Mobile Star LLC of making counterfeit adapters, cables, and other products that it sold on Amazon. In 2018, Apple said that the lawsuit "revealed that Mobile Star's supply chain includes entities that are known counterfeiters and infringers of Apple's intellectual property and source large quantities of Apple-branded products directly from entities based in China," according to USA Today.Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast CYBER, here.Do you work for Apple? Or do you have any information on the market for stolen or leaked devices? We’d love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, OTR chat at lorenzofb@jabber.ccc.de, or email lorenzofb@vice.com