A lawsuit was filed against Apple accusing that the tech giant failed to honor its terms of warranty by replacing broken devices. Plaintiffs Justin Carter and Vicky Maldonado filed a motion for preliminary approval of the Apple settlement on 1st October in a California deferral court. The AppleCare extended warranty plan covers devices like iPads or iPhones. Once customers pay for this warranty, they are eligible to have their damaged devices replaced or repaired. However, Apple didn’t replace devices as per the warranty terms and this brought about the AppleCare class-action lawsuit.
As per the plaintiffs, the terms and conditions of AppleCare promised replacement of damaged iPads and iPhones with devices that are either new or as good as new in terms of reliability and performance. However, Apple delivered refurbished or remanufactured products while replacing the devices which went against the warranty terms.
This action on the part of Apple caused financial damages and shortchanged customers as it equated “equivalent to new” with “refurbished,” “used,” or “remanufactured.” Additional coverage was purchased by AppleCare customers who believed that they would receive reliable parts as per the terms of the warranty. The class-action lawsuit contended that the customers wouldn’t have paid for AppleCare if consumers knew that used parts would be provided for replacing their devices.
Eligibility For Making Claim: Individuals who purchased the AppleCare or AppleCare+ service for their iPad or iPhone post 20th July 2012 and received a remanufactured replacement are entitled to the settlement benefits.
Proof Of Purchase: No claim form is required as AppleCare customers will receive payment automatically if they don’t exclude themselves from the settlement.
Potential Claim Amount: Though Apple has not accepted any wrongdoing, they have agreed to resolve the allegations by paying $95 million. As per the settlement terms, AppleCare customers are eligible to receive a cash payment. Though no payment estimates have been made available to date, the amount will vary as per the number of claimants who participate in the settlement. As per the Class counsel, 13-25% of damages sustained by the class members shall be covered by the relief from the settlement. This cannot be termed as full recovery but is higher than getting no payments at all if the plaintiffs somehow lost at trial. It is expected that the Class would recover between $63.4M and $68.1M after the attorney’s fees, incentive awards, and administrative costs have been deducted.
Claim Inclusion Form: https://replacementdevicelawsuit.com/Inclusion
Deadline for Submitting Claim: Class members can either exclude themselves from or object to the claim within 03/04/2022
Final Hearing Date: 04/27/2022
Settlement Pool: $95 million
