Belgian Consumer Organization Sues Apple For Not Respecting Warranty Law

New submitter thygate writes with news of more trouble for Apple with its warranty terms complying with E.U. regulations. From the press release: "For many years warranty issues are at the top of the charts of complaints dealt with by consumer organizations. One of the recurring problems are the complaints about Apple. 'Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats' found major problems fixed on the information provided by Apple and its authorized distributors regarding the legal guarantee, the commercial one year warranty, and the warranty extension through the 'AppleCare Protection Plan' of 2 or 3 years. A lawsuit against Apple has been filed (English translation; original)) with the Commercial Court of Brussels. In a precedent in Italy, The commercial practices of Apple were found to be misleading. Apple was sentenced to pay € 900,000 and was obliged to change their contractual legal warranty and guarantees to consumers."

Precedent?

[crankyspice]

In Brussels, from an Italian court? I thought the EU countries (except England, which is still Common Law) were civil law jurisdictions, which don't recognize stare decisis (i.e., no "precedent" from prior decisions)...?

Obligated

[holophrastic]

I hardly think that Apple was obliged to change anything. Probably obligated, but not obliged.

Same in Australia

[SirAdelaide]

Apple still tries these tactics in Australia, even two years after being brought to public attention. In Australia, if a product isn't fit for purpose, you can return it to the store it was bought from, regardless of what Apple try to tell you. This is one small part of the reason for the 'Australia Tax', the other parts being inexplicable.

See http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/01/apple-stores-warranty-approach-contradicts-australian-consumer-law/ [lifehacker.com.au] for more detail.

Re:So what is Apple actually accused of?

[GNious]

[...] since a couple of schools are starting to make iPad a basic necessity for education and others are looking at them as an example instead of going for the open-source android communities.

Not to mention the income from fixing 15% of the school iPads every year: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Viden/Teknologi/2013/01/Crashtest_af_ipads_soroe.htm [www.dr.dk] ..or when kids end up spending 2000 euros on stuff "by accident": http://www.dr.dk/P4/Aarhus/Nyheder/Odder/2012/02/02/02134329.htm [www.dr.dk]
  (Danish links - use google trans)

Re:My dad once purchased Apple Care

[Anonymous Coward]

A warranty covers defects, and Applecare explicitly says that this covers "Defects arising after customer takes delivery [apple.com]" (contrast with statutory warranties which usually only cover inherent defects - not that I'm saying this isn't an inherent defect, my point is that Applecare you shouldn't even have to argue whether or not it's inherent as it should be covered either way).

Unless you're accusing the grandparent's dad of secretly neglecting his iPad, this is clearly a defect.