He may be lucky..
.. because
a - Apple and SIS HAD exculpatory evidence but chose to hide it, leading to not just wrongful accusations but a string of negative followup events which impacted his life
b - US punitive damages are supposed to set examples (the hint is in the word "punitive") and it's Apple. A fine of couple of million would not even need boardroom signoff, so kicking off with a $1bn demand was not a bad move.
To be honest, this is shocking. Yes, you can screw up, it happens, because there are indeed a Godawful amount of people and gangs who engage in proletarian shopping, it's the scourge of everyone with a shop open to the public. However, if that happens you apologize, with or without the help of a fine, and correct so you don't make that mistake again. What you do NOT try to do is to ruin someone's life, because then YOU are committing a crime and frankly I hope they get the absolute bejeezes fined out of them.
I'm very OK with Apple as a technology provider, I am very much NOT OK with whoever is in charge of the shops because this attempt to shove this crap under the carpet and just ruin someone's life ought to be visited on whoever took that decision. A fine isn't enough, nor is just sacking the f*ckwit who thought that would be OK to do because they'll just find another place to work.
Good that it has finally made its way into the courts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
