Australian Consumer Watchdog Sues Apple Over iPad Marketing

Fluffeh writes "Australia's competition regulator will today take iconic technology giant Apple to court for advertising its new iPad tablet as featuring '4G' speeds — which are not supported on Australian telecommunications networks. One of the key features of the new iPad is support for 4G speeds, however, the 4G speeds which the new iPad supports will not be available in Australia, with Apple's technical specifications page only listing it as supporting the 700Mhz and 2100Mhz spectrum bands, neither of which are being used by Australian telcos to provide 4G services. The case may be a bit shaky, though, as Apple does state in the fine print: '4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US; and on Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada. Data plans sold separately. See your carrier for details.'"

Comments

Does fine print supercede large print?

[hawguy]

The article says that the fine print may make the case shaky:

The case may be a bit shaky, though, as Apple does state in the fine print: '4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US; and on Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada. Data plans sold separately. See your carrier for details.'"

But why can the fine print supercede what's in the main ad? How can an ad for a 4G device in Australia be legal if that device will never be able to work in Australia? They can list the 4G for USA and Canada on the specs page. As another example, if an ad screams "Unlimited 4G data!!!" in large print, they shouldn't be able to write "Unlimited plans subject to data caps that we won't reveal to you and throttling back to speeds slower than 2G speeds" down in the fine print. If it says "Unlimited" in the large print, then it really should be "Unlimited". Fine print shouldn't be able to contradict the main body of the ad.

Re:Does fine print supercede large print?

[robbak]

The Australian courts have answered this many times: It does not. Fine print does not even trump customers logical expectations.

The only thing that may save Apple is that the boxes have quite a large sticker on the back that states that the 4G capability is not compatible with any Australian network. Assuming that Apple has not advertised 4G in any Australian-targeted advertising, they should be OK.

If they have, then fines and forced offers of refunds will be in their future.

Re:Does fine print supercede large print?

[whoever57]

Assuming that Apple has not advertised 4G in any Australian-targeted advertising, they should be OK.

Read this page and then note the "au" in the URL, not also the prices in Austalian dollars. It is clearly targeted to Australia and it highlights 4G capability.

Re:Silly

[PigIronBob]

The Crux of the matter here is that 4G is available in Australia, Apple just can't be bothered making the iPad compatible with the Australian Network, yet advertises as if it were, that is false advertising in anyones book.

Re:IMHO Apple is becoming a scummy advertiser

[xSacha]

Uh, it's US which runs on different bands to the rest of the world.
Europe and Asia are using Australia's bands.

While Telstra is the only one with a 4G network right now, Optus is launching one in a month and Vodafone is soon to follow.

Re:IMHO Apple is becoming a scummy advertiser

[whoever57]

Actually, in this case, it's not Apple's fault, which I fully expect them to stand up in court and say.

I make a clear distinction between what is legal and what is ethical. Advertising a a 4G capability that none of the buyers will ever be able to use unless they travel abroad and then buy service is unethical. Telstra may deserve some crticism for only providing 4G on a limited range of frequencies, but that is irrelevent to the fact that the advertisements are highly misleading. Apple knew that the 4G would not work in Australia, yet they decided to advertise it anyway.

Car analogy: car maker advertises car with 1000 mile range, except that it needs unobtanium for fuel in order to get the 1K mile range. According to you, the fault would lie with the fuel companies for not selling unobtanium.

Re:IMHO Apple is becoming a scummy advertiser

[unreadepitaph]

Let's have a look at 4G around around the world shall we?
http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html
Oh look! It would appear that THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD uses the 900/1800 GSM band.

Apple intentionally mislead consumers, and they were warned prior to the iPads release by the ACCC that what they were doing was in breach of advertising laws.
I've spoken to many CEO's (I work helpdesk for a private hospitals) who wanted to order the iPad and when I told them it wasn't 4G compatible in Australia they were all shocked to hear it. I would assume this is the same with many other consumers as well.

Re:IMHO Apple is becoming a scummy advertiser

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

which operates on a different spectrum than the 4G networks used everywhere else in the world

WTF are you talking about? The LTE ipad uses 700, 2100 MHz bands, and according to Wikipedia's 3GPP LTE page:

The LTE standard can be used with many different frequency bands. In North America, 700/ 800 and 1700/ 1900 MHz are planned to be used; 800, 1800, 2600 MHz in Europe; 1800 and 2600 MHz in Asia; and 1800 MHz in Australia.

The US & Canada are the only countries in the world with LTE networks fully compatable with the ipad.

US !=The rest of the world.

Re:IMHO Apple is becoming a scummy advertiser

[ATMAvatar]

Whenever there is a global standard and a question on whether the US is following it, the safest best is that the US isn't.