A federal judge, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Apple of misleading consumers about how resistant its iPhones are to water exposure, reports Reuters.
Apple’s advertisements claimed the smartphone was resistance to damage when submerged or otherwise exposed to water, including that some models could survive depths of 13.1 feet for 30 minutes.The lawsuits claim that Apple’s “false and misleading” misrepresentations let the company charge twice as much for iPhones than the cost of “average smartphones.”
Cote said that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Apple’s ads could mislead consumers, but didn’t show their iPhones were damaged by “liquid contact” Apple promised they could withstand.
Reuters says the judge also found no proof of fraud, citing a lack of evidence that Apple intended to overstate its water resistance claims, or that the plaintiffs relied on fraudulent marketing statements when buying their iPhones.
Though this case was dismissed, Apple was fined about US$12 million in November 2020 by the by the Italian Antitrust Authority for misleading consumers in marketing the water-resistance of its iPhones. The agency said the tech giant didn’t properly clarifying to consumers that the depths and timing work under specific conditions, such as lab-controlled testing with static and pure water.
Meanwhile, Apple been granted various patents such as number 11,205,548 regarding plans to make the iPhone not such water resistant, but waterproof.
