Hot Topics: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

   Print
28 March 2012| last updated at 09:37AM

Apple offers to refund Australian iPad customers



0 comments

SYDNEY: US tech giant Apple on Wednesday offered to refund Australian customers who felt misled by advertising about 4G capabilities on its new iPad, reports said.

Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission has taken Apple to the  Federal Court for false advertising over its “iPad with WiFi + 4G” promotion  because the popular tablet device does not work on the local 4G frequency.

Apple’s lawyers said the tech firm was prepared to publish a clarification  about the iPad’s Australian capabilities and refund any customers who felt they  had been misled by the 4G reference, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Paul Anastassiou, counsel for Apple, said in court that the company was  confident very few people would apply for a refund.

Anastassiou added that Apple was not prepared to put corrective stickers on  iPad boxes, as sought by the ACCC, but would email customers to clarify that  the device was not compatible with local carrier Telstra’s 4G network.

However, Anastassiou said that when the matter came to full trial Apple  would contest the ACCC’s claims that it had misled consumers because the  latest-generation iPad did work on other Telstra frequencies.

“It will be contested by Apple there are in Australia networks that,  according to international definitions, are 4G,” he told the court according to  The Age newspaper.

“What Apple says is that other networks operated by Telstra are in fact  properly described by international standards as 4G, even though Telstra itself  does not so describe them.”    Anastassiou added that Apple had, “at no point in any promotional  material... said at any time” that the new iPad was compatible with Telstra’s  4G network.

“No such representation, in our submission, is conveyed by the use of the  acronym 4G in the name of the device,” he said according to The Australian  newspaper. - AFP

Leave Your Comment


Leave Your Comment:

New Straits Times reserves the right not to publish offensive or abusive comments and those of hate speech, harassment, commercial promos and invasion of privacy. Your IP will be logged and may be used to prevent further submission.The views expressed here are that of the members of the public and unless specifically stated are not those of NST.