Apple Sued For False Advertising Over Apple Intelligence (axios.com) 8
Apple has been hit with a federal lawsuit claiming that the company's promotion of now-delayed Apple Intelligence features constituted false advertising and unfair competition. From a report: The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks class action status and unspecified financial damages on behalf of those who purchased Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones and other devices. "Apple's advertisements saturated the internet, television, and other airwaves to cultivate a clear and reasonable consumer expectation that these transformative features would be available upon the iPhone's release," the suit reads.
"This drove unprecedented excitement in the market, even for Apple, as the company knew it would, and as part of Apple's ongoing effort to convince consumers to upgrade at a premium price and to distinguish itself from competitors deemed to be winning the AI-arms race. [...] Contrary to Defendant's claims of advanced AI capabilities, the Products offered a significantly limited or entirely absent version of Apple Intelligence, misleading consumers about its actual utility and performance. Worse yet, Defendant promoted its Products based on these overstated AI capabilities, leading consumers to believe they were purchasing a device with features that did not exist or were materially misrepresented."
"This drove unprecedented excitement in the market, even for Apple, as the company knew it would, and as part of Apple's ongoing effort to convince consumers to upgrade at a premium price and to distinguish itself from competitors deemed to be winning the AI-arms race. [...] Contrary to Defendant's claims of advanced AI capabilities, the Products offered a significantly limited or entirely absent version of Apple Intelligence, misleading consumers about its actual utility and performance. Worse yet, Defendant promoted its Products based on these overstated AI capabilities, leading consumers to believe they were purchasing a device with features that did not exist or were materially misrepresented."
Reality Distortion Field (Score:3)
So much for that. Now you get to see that Apple's been lying a LOT to get where it is.
Which is basically a fact for any company worth more than a few million dollars. They didn't get rich by following the law, and in all reality they should be arrested for their crimes and jailed and their profits forfeit.
30 Trillion Dollar Fine (Score:2)
Will fix everything with Apple.
"unprecedented excitement"??? (Score:2)
This drove unprecedented excitement in the market, even for Apple
These particular lawyers must not have been watching the tech world for long. Lines of fanbois used to form for new Apple shiny days ahead of a launch. We didn't see that for their AI.
Re: (Score:2)
IANAL, but if I had a nickel for every pre-annoounced tech product line that never saw the light of day, I'd have a mountain of nickels.
Pre-release noise is standard business procedure.
Butt-hurt, however, is not an injury that can be supported in litigation.
Was Apple stupid to screw up? Yes. Did people actually hold off, breathlessly waiting Apple AI? No. Were I a betting person, I'd lay high odds on this getting thrown out, with prejudice.
OTOH... (Score:3)
When Apple realized their self-driving car wasn't going to work out, they quietly killed the project. They didn't advertise it as "Full Self Driving" and sell it to thousands of people despite the fact that it couldn't actually do what the name said.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd venture a big contributing factor to the cancellation of Apple's car was because it was going to be electric. Lately, we've been seeing a lot of examples where if your company's name isn't Tesla, that's probably not going to work out. Hell, even if your company's name is Tesla, things aren't looking so great.
Ironically (Score:2)
Apple could totally get away with false advertising if they really were a religion. Or a politician for that matter, too.
Let's be honest though, did anyone really feel like they got ripped off because Apple didn't come through with a slightly less awful Siri? This smells more like lawyers looking for a payday than customers genuinely going "Welp, only bought this thing for the AI features, so I may as well throw it in the trash!"