Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuits Over Siri in Quebec and Saskatchewan

Two class action lawsuits have been launched against Apple in Quebec and Saskatchewan over the promotion of Siri as a feature of the iPhone 4S. The digital assistant feature had a limited launch in Canada with the debut of the iPhone 4S, which was misleading according to the proposed lawsuits. According to an article on the cases on Bereskin & Parr LLP’s website:

Both suits allege that Apple’s advertising of Siri was “fundamentally and designedly false and misleading” and that the company “knew or should have known that the iPhone 4S does not perform in accordance with the advertisements and marketing materials they disseminated.” Further, Apple apparently “never disclosed that the Siri transactions depicted in its advertisements are fiction and that actual consumers using actual iPhone 4S’s cannot reasonably [sic.] expect Siri to perform the tasks performed in these advertisements.”

The suit alleges the disclaimer that Siri was still in ‘beta’ status was “buried” within Apple’s website and not made front and centre in marketing materials.

Back in April, Apple faced a similar Canadian lawsuit related to Siri on the iPhone 4S, following a similar suit launched in the USA–where Apple dismissed claims as they argued customers had the option of returning their phones if they were dissatisfied. Apple added Canadian support for Siri in June.

The case has not been certified yet by a judge to proceed in Canada yet, but Bereskin & Parr LLP notes this case will be harder for Apple to defend as Siri’s localized features had not been enabled in Canada yet (check out our initial hands on of Siri when it launched here), even though they were advertised.