Apple has been slapped with a $9m fine by the federal court for making false or misleading claims to customers with faulty iPhones and iPads.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal action in April 2017, claiming Apple had misled consumers about their warranty rights by routinely refusing to inspect or fix faulty devices without charge if they had been repaired by a third party.
Apple fined $9m for misleading Australian customers with faulty iPhones and iPads
Hey, I did the sums. Apple makes $US154,320 in profit every minute. So Apple earns 9 million in profit in 58 mins.
… and CONbank has made $700M in the time you took to reply to his post :P
Apple paying a $9m fine is like me paying a $0.50 fine.
also, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-19/apple-fined-$9-million-for-misleading-customers/9885244 says for replacements, you are entitled to a brand new replacement instead of refurbished one
From the same link:
Nine million dollars is one of the highest penalties for a breach of consumer laws, the consumer regulator told the ABC.
That sounds like the ACCC trying to brag about this but honestly it's pitiful. In today's economy, and with all the dodgy stuff companies do, $9Mil is one of the highest penalties the ACCC's been able to get?
Separately, that doesn't seem to be correct per ACCC's own website here:
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/treating-customers-fairly/r…
Refurbished goods or parts
A refurbished good or part is likely to be considered as a used good/part that has been reconditioned or restored to an acceptable working order.
If a repairer sometimes uses refurbished parts to fix defective goods rather than new parts, or sometimes replaces defective goods with a refurbished version, they must also give the consumer a repair notice before accepting goods for repair.
And the wording of the Notice must be:
Goods presented for repair may be replaced by refurbished goods of the same type rather than being repaired. Refurbished parts may be used to repair the goods.
All Apple will do is increase the pricing on the next batch of phones…
and Apple consumers will pay it happily
and so goes the circle of life…
Wife had an iPhone 5C that had a strange error that the clock would randomly change time, which of course screwed up a lot of functionality of the phone. It was in warranty but Apple wouldn't fix it as it had a third party LCD assembly, even though the "genius" acknowledged it had nothing to do with the fault.
Looks like I should have taken it to the ACCC. I wonder if I would have any recourse now?
The clock randomly changing time is usually because it's set to get the time automatically from the phone tower, and certain companies end up setting the time wrong on their towers :\ I always used to have the time change when I connected to the tower near my parents' place.
But yeah the second one definitely sounds like why they got fined.
This would happen multiple times a day, even when set to manual. The Apple tech agreed that it was very strange and said he would have liked to look into it, but because of the screen he couldn't…
Will the fine be paid using iTunes Gift Cards?
Yes these they scammed these from Android phone users who downloaded fake apps….
Maybe they'll take a page from Samsung and load up trucks full of coins.
There is an element to this that seems unjust, where the fine imposed seems disproportionate for a wealthy company such as Apple, as others have already pointed out, however I think it’s worth noting that this decision has further implications beyond the monetary sting that will punish Apple; they’re actions have been called out as unfair as they should which hurts Apple’s reputation (as little as that may weigh in many minds), and consumers will now duly seek to have their already repaired products looked at by Apple under warranty.
So, whilst the fine ideally would be larger there are other punitive elements to this I reckon.
Also, I’d say, as someone who’s mainly bought Apple products before, shame on you Apple, do better.
The flip side is that Apple made $9 mil. in the time you took to write this post.