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Apple Fined By Italy For Misleading Customers About Warranty Terms

Posted by Unknown on from the legal-obligations-are-for-other-people dept.

beaverdownunder writes "An Italian watchdog has fined Apple 900,000 euros ($1.2m, £750,000) for failing to inform Italian shoppers of their legal right to two years of technical support, recognizing instead only a one-year standard warranty. This had led people to pay extra for Apple's own support service, AppleCare, which overlapped with the government-mandated guarantee."

8 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Apple got off lightly... by GrpA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That is corporate ethics at it's absolute worst. You can be sure that it's likely Apple in Italy knew of the situation and was milking it if they got a fine like that... :(

    I wonder if the fine even approaches the profits they made abusing the laws like that.

    GrpA

    --
    Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
    1. Re:Apple got off lightly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The EU protects consumer rights. American companies an the like need to get a clue. Try to avoid the gray areas instead of screwing the customer.

    2. Re:Apple got off lightly... by GrpA · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not likely... Apple is a true multinational and would be run and staffed by Italians for the most of it. And it's not bullying - it's a clear case of failing to meet their warranty obligations.

      To be fair, consumer laws in the US are pretty poor and there's very little government intervention even when US companies deliberately and systematically break the law.

      But this was not in the US, it was in Italy and like much of the the rest of the world, there are laws in Italy to protect consumers from dodgy goods. This is known as Statutory Warranty and you can be sure that if a company was fined so much, it is usually because they knew the law and were breaking it on purpose as a means to making extra profits.

      All Apple had to do is compete on the same level playing field as everyone else in Italy ( and in fact, most of the rest of the world ) and it looks like they chose not to, got caught and got punished.

      GrpA

      --
      Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
  2. Apple: 1, Italy: 0 by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple's profits from selling the additional warranties in the entire country of Italy is almost certainly more than the fine, so it was a good business decision for them to flout local law if this is all they're going to face.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  3. Easy to fix by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When a company does this to a product, force them to provide a lifetime warranty on that product. They will be much more careful.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. I thought it was already worthless by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Technical Support" from Apple is like going to church. You get told things like "because that's the way it is" and when you press, you never get the "why" part of it. I learned long ago about the compatibility between Apple and business -- there is none by the standards I have come to expect in the PC world. There is no "next business day, on site, accidental damage" support from Apple. When I learned that, I could never again take them seriously where business was concerned.

  5. Re:AppleCare by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they had informed their customers of the 2 year warranty that they were entitled to by law,

    Every european customer is supposed to know

    that. Without seeing the actual court ruling I only can assume that some customer rights organizations filed a suit because they found the apple advertizings missleading.

    The thing is, they thought the choice was between AppleCare and a 1 year warranty.... but it wasn't. They were misinformed, by the same party who was profiting from decision, and thus had motive to mislead them.

    That is what the newspapers claim, and the court (seems to have) ruled. However I find this unbelieveable.
    Every product in the EU since ages has a law gurranteed 2 years "guarranty". If you see how few people buy the AppleCare extra guarranty I find this whole case bollocks ...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  6. Re:Not surprised... by Entropius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They have to be making a shitton of money on hardware. I bought a laptop from Sager last summer for $1100: 1920x1080 extended-gamut screen, quad-core Sandy Bridge processor, Geforce 555M, the works. Very nice machine. I wound up pricing those specs on Apple's website: you couldn't get a graphics card on par with the 555M for love nor money from Apple, and to get everything else it'd be around $2300.

    The Apple machine has nicer speakers and that aluminium body, but beyond that -- Apple's got to be pocketing a large part of that $1200 difference.