Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class action law suit filed in the USA accusing the company of failing to honour warranties on iPhones and iPod touches, reports Wired:
The settlement, (.pdf) set to be filed in a San Francisco federal court in the coming weeks, provides cash payouts to potentially hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPad Touch consumers who found Apple unwilling to repair or replace their faulty phones under Apple’s one-year standard, or a two-year extended, warranty. Apple chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall signed the agreement Wednesday. Apple admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which needs a judge’s approval.
The issue revolves the white liquid contact indicator Apple uses to detect signs of exposure to water in its original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and first to third generation iPod touch units. Apple refused to offer warranty service on any devices if the white tape had turned pink or red, which would indicate water exposure. However, 3M, the maker of the tape said humidity was also a factor that could have changed the tape’s colour to at least pink, instead of just water.
The settlement notes Apple produced 265,000 pages of documents for the Class Counsel to review and analyze. It says payouts will work out to around $200 depending on the number of claims submitted within the class action lawsuit.
