Apple Fined AUS$9 Million in Australia for Bricking iPhones

Apple is once again finding itself in trouble after an Australian court ruled that the company breached the Australian consumer law. Multiple iOS users found their devices bricked after downloading an iOS update because their devices had been repaired by third parties.

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Those users then reported the error (codenamed “error 53) to Apple and found themselves not eligible for help because they previously had used third parties to repair the devices.

“If a product is faulty, customers are legally entitled to a repair or a replacement under the Australian Consumer Law, and sometimes even a refund. Apple’s representations led customers to believe they’d be denied a remedy for their faulty device because they used a third party repairer. The Court declared the mere fact that an iPhone or iPad had been repaired by someone other than Apple did not, and could not, result in the consumer guarantees ceasing to apply, or the consumer’s right to a remedy being extinguished, ” said ACCC commissioner Sarah Court in a statement about the case.

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For breaching the ACC, Apple was slapped with an AUS$9 million fine ($around $6.6 million), even though at the beginning of the investigation Apple reached out to compensate the owners of the bricked “error 53” devices.