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Microsoft Sued Over Fall Update Issues
Gamespot is reporting that a rumour that's been floating around has, for once, turned out to be true. Microsoft has been sued for breach of contract and negligence in connection to the Xbox Live Fall Update. From the article: " Stating that the affected consumers number in 'at least the thousands,' the suit contends that Microsoft is refusing to repair or replace the broken systems unless the users pay 'up to $140' to ship it back to the company. The plaintiff is demanding that Microsoft pay at least $5 million in damages for breach of contract to those affected by the Fall Update problems, and an additional amount of at least $5 million in damages for an unfair or deceptive act under the CPA. Should Microsoft argue that it had no agreement to breach with the affected users, then the plaintiff contends Microsoft was negligent, and should be made to pay at least $5 million in damages." It should be noted that Microsoft has responded by saying it has offered to completely cover the cost of systems affected by the update, including shipping.
A company can be sued for negligence and violation of the consumer protection act if it can be shown that it did know or should reasonably have known about the problem, and failed to take action to prevent it. It has nothing to do with a willingness to fix it.
I don't mean to imply that this is a valid lawsuit, but a good counter example is car seat belts. Lets imagine that CAR COMPANY A produces a car that it turns out has faulty seat belts. Even if the car company issues a recall and offers to completely pay all costs of repairs (which it no doubt would), it can still possibly be sued if it can be shown that the error was the result of negligence and not of innocent or unforseeable error (or even more seriously, if it can be shown that it KNEW about the problem and didnt act to fix it).
Again, I dont think this applies to this case, and i doubt this case has an ounce of merit, but Im just saying that Microsofts willingness to replace and pay for shipping does NOT completely shield them from a lawsuit, if the lawsuit was valid