Apple Store 'Bag Check' Suit Dismissed

Apple has successfully sidestepped a lawsuit from employees who called its bag-checking policy "demeaning."

A federal judge in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday dismissed the lawsuit against Apple, saying that while Apple may have checked employee bags before they left to ensure no one was stealing things, employees had the right to choose whether they even needed to bring bags to work. The employees, in other words, had the freedom to determine whether they'd be subjected to the inspections, according to Bloomberg.

In June, it was revealed that Apple was slapped with a lawsuit back in 2013 over its bag-checking policy. One retail store employee said in an email to CEO Tim Cook that it made workers feel as if they were "criminals."

According to that email, when an employee starts working at one of Apple's hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores, he or she is issued a card with the serial numbers of personal Apple devices. Each day after a shift, managers must inspect employee bags to ensure there are no Apple products inside that are not already owned by the employee. The checks, the email said, were sometimes done in front of "gawking customers."

More than 12,000 former and current employees joined the suit, and Apple might have been on the hook for up to $60 million, according to Bloomberg. Cupertino, however, appears to have dodged a bullet, though the employees can appeal.