Product Liability Lawsuit Against Apple For Not Providing Adequate Updates for O

Question

Product Liability Lawsuit Against Apple For Not Providing Adequate Updates for Older iPhone Models:

1.Identify the plaintiff and the defendant

2.Summarize only those facts critical to the outcome of the case

Apple is now facing a class action lawsuit for not providing updates that are adequate for older iPhone models. The lawsuit claims that the company purposefully created the newest update, iOS 9, to slow down older iPhones so customers will be forced to buy newer, more expensive models. At least 100 plaintiffs, mostly iPhone 4S owners, claim that Apple falsely advertised the update to be compatible with their phones, when it actually made them unusable, leaving the plaintiffs, “with a difficult choice: use a slow and buggy device that disrupts everyday life, or spend hundreds of dollars to buy a new phone.” Operating system downloads for Apple are irreversible, because Apple does not permit users to downgrade. The lawsuit is seeking more than $5million in damages, and says that the technology giant was well aware of the defect through internal testing, but chose to engage in a large scale marketing campaign, claiming enhanced features such as a longer battery life, faster performance, and top notch security. Apparently, Apple was betting on the fact that most users would rather pay hundreds of dollars for a newer model than switch to a competitor, because of un-transferrable investments, such as apps.

This isn’t the first class action consumer lawsuit Apple has had to deal with this past year, because of iOS 9 defects. Another lawsuit claims Apple was negligent in notifying the public about possible issues with their new Wi-fi Assist feature. This new feature automatically switches over to cellular data when it detects a weak Wi-Fi signal, which caused millions of customers to unwittingly go over the allotted amount in their data packages. Because Apple chose to enable this feature by default, many customers were unaware that they were actually using cellular data, when they logged on to free Wi-Fi networks. By not properly informing its customers of the potential data overuse, Apple has violated California’s unfair competition and false advertisement laws. Even though the company eventually published a document on its website with instructions on how to disable the feature, consumers are claiming that they did not respond quickly enough to the many complaints.

Explanation / Answer

1. This is a class action lawsuit and so there are many plaintiffs in this case. The plaintiffs consist of those users of Apple’s i-phone that have suffered due to non-provision of adequate updates by Apple for older models of its i-phones.

The defendant is Apple Inc.

2. Summary of facts critical to the outcome of the case:

(i) Ios 9 update was created by Apple to purposely and deliberately slow down older models of i-phone.

(ii) Apple does not permit users to downgrade, making the operating system downloads irreversible.

(iii) Due to the defect the users of older models of i-phone were forced to buy new models that were expensive.

(iv) Apple was aware of the defect and introduced it in the market purposefully to augment the sales of newer models.

(v) Privity of contract exists in this case as the aggrieved parties are the buyer and user of i-phones.

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