Washington DC

President Joe Biden administration in the US has refused to reverse a government tribunal's decision to impose ban on Apple Watches. Reuters reported that US Trade Representative Katherine Tai decided not to veto import ban on Apple's Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches. The order of import ban has been passed by US International Trade Commission (ITC) following a complaint from Massimo, a medical monitoring tech company. The company has accused Apple of stealing its pulse oximetry technology and hiring away its employees.

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ITC's order on import ban has gone into effect on Tuesday (Dec 26). Apple has decided to appeal the ban in US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. The tech giant had previously made a request to ITC to pause the ban during the appeal process. The request has been rejected.

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After ITC's decision, Apple has paused selling Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in the US. However, the watches were on sale on platforms of other retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy as of Tuesday.

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The order does not affect the smartwatches which are already sold. It also does not apply to the sale of Apple Watch SE, which is a less expensive model.

'Manoeuvre to clear path'

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Apple claims that Masimo's legal action is just a "manoeuvre to clear a path" so that the company can introduce its own smartwatch to compete with Apple.

Apple has also sued Masimo for patent infringement in federal court in Delaware.

In the US, a presidential administration has not reversed ITC's ruling since the year 2013. At the time, administration led by president Barack Obama overturned import ban on Apple iPhones during the tech giant's patent dispute with Samsung.

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In February this year Biden administration declined to veto import ban on Apple Watches in a separate case. This patent infringement case was brought by medical technology company AliveCor.

Apple's wearables form a sizeable chunk of the company's revenue. As per figures release previously by Apple, the wearables accounted for USD 8.28 billion in revenue in third quarter of 2023 alone.

(With inputs from agencies)