An Australian judge has had Apple pay out $2.28 million USD in fines and $300,000 in court costs in settlement of a lawsuit against them giving out false marketing concerning the 4G capabilities of their new iPad. According to PCWorld, the judge said that the marketing of the New iPad ‘3’ left some Australians feeling shortchanged by Apple.
New iPad 3 users in Australia take Apple to court over false 4G claims
The settlement had been waiting for approval from the Federal Court in Melbourne after being reached earlier this month. Apple backed down when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission brought the suit against them on March 28th. Apple agreed to clarify that their iPad would not work on the 4G network in Australia which is run by Telstra. They also offered refunds to those who had purchased one of the latest iPads on the understanding that it would work on the 4G network, however very few people have taken them up on this offer.
The judge said that it would be impossible to determine how many consumers were disappointed or felt mislead by Apple. He went on to say that with Telstra promoting the 4G networks superiority there was no doubt some who had bought the device would feel short changed.
The 4G service offered by Telstra works on the 1800MHz band but the new iPad only uses the LTE on 700 and 2100MHz bands. The New iPad is compatible with networks on 4G LTE in the US along with Canada on HSPA, HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.
The fine was handed to Apple due to the fact that they refused to change the wording on advertising, even though it had been said that it would mislead consumers. The judge said that this was unforgivable for a company the size of Apple and the fine reflects the seriousness of this.
Apple said in a statement that they had decided to use “Wi-Fi and Cellular” in very simple terms to describe the high speed networks that the device supports, due to the fact that carriers do not all use the same terminology when talking about their high speed networks.
