Apple Italy throws up ruling on its store site

Apple Italy has posted details of the ruling against it, as required by the Italian courts, though we don't yet know if Cupertino will be coughing up the €1.2m fine too. A small "Communication to protect consumers" has appeared at the top of the Italian Apple store, linking to a PDF document setting out the court decision …

[David Perry 2]

Pennies to them

That fine is nothing to them figures wise, it would be on principle they'd contest it.

I'd have thought it's the patents cases they're harder on as that's long term / on going revenue / licensing income that is more valuable / likely to affect growth.

Sherlock cos a) it's hypothesising, b) Benedict C's sherlock is the coolest thing on tv

[oddie]

Its probably more about wanting still be able to sell extended warranties rather than the size of the fine... Lots of monies to be made in ext. Warranties

[Anonymous Coward]

On a similar note.. I bought a slingbox (in the UK)

My Slingbox stopped powering up and was stil well within a year of purchase. When I contacted Sling Media, I was told that they only provide a 6 month warranty and that I was out of luck.

After a lot of emails back and forth, they did agree to replace it.

[Fuzz]

Where did you buy your slingbox?

If you bought it from a shop then Sling Media have no liability, it is up to the shop to replace or repair the item.

[Alan Brown]

apart from "fit for purpose"

... I was considering a DVB-S2 slingbox and will now be asking the uk sales office about this.

If it's really 6 months then my money goes elsewhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple PR have started responding to you?!!!!

The mind boggles. What happened, did somebody die or something?

[Anonymous Coward]

interesting

But when you're going to open stores in a foreign land (or anywhere infect) shouldn't you actually try and be-aware of the Laws ?

[Jedit]

"Try and be aware of the laws"

Yes, because otherwise you may end up spending more than you have to on bribing the courts.

[Alan 6]

Fairly sure that the average US citizen has no idea Italy is a foreign land, they probably think it's one of the smaller boroughs of New York...

[Doug Glass]

That would be "Little Italy".

[dinoone]

The Italian laws on consumer goods guarantee is a EU-wide law

Italy adopted the 2-year guarantee law because obliged by a EU directive.

Such standard rule is therefore valid in all EU countries, not only in Italy.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?201196-EU-law-that-gives-consumers-a-two-year-guarantee-on-goods-is-a-well-kept-secret-among-retailers

[Nick Rutland]

EU gets bashed lot...

... but isn't the two-year warranty thing one of the EU achievements? I thought this was EU -wide, not just Italy.

Happy to be corrected...

[Anonymous Coward]

EU

The 2 years is the minimum time a country can apply consumer protection.

see

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l32022_en.htm

and

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/index_en.htm

Your rights diminish (ie the burden of proof increases for you) as time passes.

England & wales have a six year timescale, Scotland, five.

Retailers/Suppliers/BoxShifters constantly try to wriggle out of it, until threatened with the legislation,

a copy of which is useful to have when taking stuff back.

The more people who are aware of this the better.

[Emilio Desalvo]

It can be less than two years, but ONLY if the customer agrees explicitly to this by signing a document.

[Fihart]

@ Aimee

Thanks for the practical guide -- I've been flame grilled on other forums for suggesting that UK consumers have rights beyond the manufacturer's warranty.

Perhaps the best way to explain things to stubborn sales staff is that the warranty is an arrangement between the manufacturer and the vendor that does not affect the consumer's rights in law.

In effect, the mfr. agrees to take on (usually for one year) a UK vendor's (six year) obligation to repair/replace/refund the consumer on faulty consumer durables.

The other key phrase, I've found is to state that "any reasonable person would expect consumer durables to be reasonably durable (e.g. more than one year)".

It is worth buying major items from supermarkets. Supermarkets rely upon your weekly shop for their living and cannot afford to lose that business. Specialist stores (and consumer durables manufacturers) can be fairly confident that you'll only buy (say) a TV once every 10 years -- and you probably won't buy the next one from them. So, to hell with you when something goes wrong !

[Paul 172]

@Fihart

I absolutely agree with you there.

In fact this is the reason I have "returned" my Applecare on my recent laptop purchase. £200-odd quid just to have a subset of my already legal rights, oh and telephone os x support...... herm...

i bought it because i thought it included accidental damage but it turns out thats only for iphones....