“A class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple Computer with two classes, one for Apple resellers and the other for consumers, AppleInsider has learned. In the 26-page complaint, filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court in California on Thursday, a group of consumers and Apple resellers allege that Apple has engaged in acts of unfair and unlawful business practices, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets. These actions have also resulted in violations of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Song Beverly Act, the suit claims,’ Kasper Jade and Prince McLean report for AppleInsider.
“The class action lawsuit was filed by three firms on behalf of Jack Branning, James Seybert, Stacey Blevins, Tom Siechert and Joe Weingarten. Together they accuse Apple of repackaging and selling refurbished machines to resellers and consumers as ‘new products’ without notification to the reseller or end customer. They say Apple has not always honored its extended warranty contracts known as Apple Care, and have often shorted consumers on the term of new product warranties,” Jade and McLean report. “The plaintiffs also charge the company with further warranty abuse, and failure to extend warranty dates based on the time it takes to repair a product… Resellers are also charging the company with unfair and unlawful competition, saying Apple has stocked its own retail stores before the retail channel in an effort to recruit customers to its own sales channels. They also allege Apple has used unfair pricing policies. The suit says Apple has sold Macs to end users at prices below their own wholesales costs, and that Apple has made promises to sell its products below the price of any other Authorized Apple Reseller.”
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