INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Apple has been fined AUS$9M (~$6.6M) by a court in Australia following a legal challenge by a consumer rights group related to the company
response after iOS updates bricked devices that had been repaired by third parties.
TheAustralian Competitor and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
invested a series of complaints relating to an error (‘error 53&) which disabled some iPhones and iPads after owners downloaded an update
to Apple iOS operating system.
The ACCC saysApple admitted that, between February 2015 and February 2016 — via theApple US& website, Apple
Australia staff in-store and customer service phone calls —it had informed at least 275 Australian customers affected by error 53 that
they were no longer eligible for a remedy if their device had been repaired by a third party.
Image credit: 70023venus2009 via Flickr under
license CC BY-ND 2.0
The court judged Apple action to have breached the Australian consumer law.
&If a product is faulty, customers are
legally entitled to a repair or a replacement under the Australian Consumer Law, and sometimes even a refund
Apple representations led customers to believe they&d be denied a remedy for their faulty device because they used a third party repairer,&
said ACCC commissioner Sarah Court in a statement.
&The Court declared the mere fact that an iPhone or iPad had been repaired by someone
other than Apple did not, and could not, result in the consumer guarantees ceasing to apply, or the consumer right to a remedy being
extinguished.&
The ACCC notes that after itnotified Apple about its investigation, the company implemented an outreach program to compensate
individual consumers whose devices were made inoperable by error 53
It says this outreach program was extended to approximately 5,000 consumers.
It also says Apple Australia offered a court enforceable
undertaking to improve staff training, audit information about warranties and Australian Consumer Law on its website, and improve its
systems and procedures to ensure future compliance with the law.
The ACCC further notes that a concern addressed by the undertaking is that
Apple was allegedly providing refurbished goods as replacements, after supplying a good which suffered a major failure — saying Apple has
committed to provide new replacements in those circumstances if the consumer requests one.
&If people buy an iPhone or iPad from Apple and
it suffers a major failure, they are entitled to a refund
If customers would prefer a replacement, they are entitled to a new device as opposed to refurbished, if one is available,& said Court.
The
court also held the Apple parent company, Apple US, responsible for the conduct of its Australian subsidiary.&Global companies must ensure
their returns policies are compliant with the Australian Consumer Law, or they will face ACCC action,& added Court.
We&ve reached out to
Apple for comment on the court decision and will update this post with any response.
A company spokeswoman told Reuters it had had &very
productive conversations with the ACCC about this& but declined to comment further on the court finding.
More recently, Apple found itself
in hot water with consumer groups around the worldover its use of a power management feature that throttled performance on olderiPhonesto
avoid unexpected battery shutdowns.
The company apologized in December for not being more transparent about the feature, and later said it
would add a control allowing consumers to turn it off if they did not want their device performance to be impacted.
