• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 22, 2016

Handing Apple a victory, a federal judge has dismissed a potential class-action lawsuit filed by iPhone users who alleged that the iOS9 default settings resulted in unexpectedly high mobile data usage.

The lawsuit centered on the iOS9 "Wi-Fi Assist" setting, which automatically switches people from Wi-Fi networks to cell networks when Wi-Fi isn't available. The consumers who sued -- Florida residents William Scott Phillips and Suzanne Schmidt Phillips, and Arkansas resident William Cottrell -- alleged that they upgraded their iPhones to iOS9 last September, and subsequently ran up data overages.

They contended in court papers that Apple violated California laws against false advertising and unfair competition by failing to disclose the details about how the Wi-Fi Assist feature operates.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose dismissed the lawsuit this week, ruling that the consumers didn't allege that they installed iOS9 due to Apple's statements about Wi-Fi Assist.

Koh wrote that the iPhone users didn't explain in their complaint how their data charges were attributable to any promises by Apple. "For plaintiffs’ data overuse charges to be caused by Apple’s representations, plaintiffs must have seen the representations and taken action based on what they saw," Koh wrote.

The dismissal was without prejudice, which means that the iPhone users can amend their papers and refile them.

Since last September, some iPhone users have reported big spikes in data usage after using Wi-Fi Assist. The feature can be turned off, but is enabled by default. One teenager, Ashton Finegold of San Francisco, told CBS in January that he racked up a phone bill of more than $2,000, due to Wi-Fi Assist.

Apple says on its site that most people should only see a small increase in total data consumption as a result of the feature.