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Bricked iPhones With 'Error 53' Just Cost Apple $6.7 Million in Australia (betanews.com)
Apple has been hit with an AUS $9 million ($6.7 million) fine for misleading customers in Australia. More than two years ago Apple started to "brick" iPhones that had been fixed at non-authorized third-party repairers, generating an Error 53. From a report: Apple admitted to intentionally preventing certain repaired iPhones and iPads from working for security reasons, but later apologized and issued a fix. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued Apple for "misleading or deceptive conduct," and now an Australian court has hit the iPhone-maker with a multi-million dollar fine.
The courts can't hold apple accountable for third party repairs that weren't within the spec of the official original parts used.
You repaired your phone with a substandard part, so what if it works for *THAT* IOS version - it's not going to work for any future versions if apple decide to fully utilise that part's speed/capabilities, and apple can't know the shit parts third party repairers are going to try to pass-off as working.
Let me iterate that again - the spec on the replacement part has changed, to that of a lower specification which *appears* to work. A typical 'car' analogy would be you getting to sue GM because your aftermarket fuel filter fucked the engine over after another 10k miles.
This is going to come back to bite a lot of people, and those people, like apple, should be getting this decision by the aussie courts reversed asap, as it's going to set a precedent alright, and cause a shitstorm for all kinds of things (healthcare, cars, houses, etc ,etc). I look forward to reading the aussie fallout from this