Amber Neely
Quebec Superior Court has allowed a lawsuit against Apple on the grounds that batteries in the iPhone and other products are not durable for a reasonable length of time.
Apple now faces a class action lawsuit covering Qubecers who purchased Apple products with rechargeable batteries since late 2014 and those who have purchased AppleCare and AppleCare+. Products include iPhones, iPods, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks.
Law firms Renno Vathilakis and LPC Advocat are leading the suit. The lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for consumers.
The class action was allowed on the basis that Apple has failed to provide products that must be durable for a reasonable length of time. Apple has faced scrutiny for battery life in the past, prompting the company to replace over 11 million iPhone batteries in 2018.
According to the Montreal Gazette, the class action also alleges that consumers were not informed of the legal gaurantee avaialble to them under Quebec's Consumer Protection Act. Law firm Vathilakis has stated that Apple has a responsibility to disclose to customers the guarantees provided by the act prior to purchasing AppleCare.
At present, it isn't clear what the filers consider a reasonable length of time. Apple, and the Canadian government, consider batteries to be consumables and generally not covered under the Consumer Protection Act.
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22 Comments
It would be reasonable to have the batteries in iPhone last 70 (seventy) years. Because if a kid gets a phone to their 14th birthday, with life exectancy of about 84 years, it is reasonable to want to used your phone untill you die. By the same time your phone's battery dies too. I think we need to pass the law. It's reasonable.
The Quebec law does not state a duration for, say, battery life. That would be ludicrous considering that some devices are not meant to last as long as others. The law, however, incorporates the concept of “fitness”. That is, that a device must be useable for the length of time it has been sold for. The law does not require a device to remain in the same state than the day it was bought for the lifetime of the product, only that it remains usable. The law sets a quality baseline. And this baseline is not very high. It’s a consumer protection act after all.
I reckon as long as an [insert any alt phone company mobile here] battery lasts.
Apple also fell afoul to EU consumer watchdogs (Italy springs to mind) for not being clear with buyers of AppleCare. They were pushing a sale in store without making it clear that EU statutory rights gave them consumer a two-year guarantee from the start.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/12/apple-hit-with-12-million-fine-for-misleading-italian-consumers/