“Apple Inc., along with its chief executive and exclusive U.S. iPhone wireless partner AT&T, have been hit with a new lawsuit from a disgruntled customer who charges the trio with a variety of offenses stemming from the recent iPhone price cut,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“In the suit, filed Sept. 24 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Queens resident Dongmei Li accuses the parties of price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings for their role in the Sept. 5th price drop on iPhone, which saw the handset’s price tag slashed an unprecedented $200 less than two months after its debut,” Jade reports.
“She, like thousands of others, the suit claims, is now the victim of price discrimination in that she cannot resell her iPhone for the same profit as customers who purchased the device after price drop. Similarly, she cannot trade up to 8GB model she had initially hoped to obtain and is now left with a product that has been discontinued,” Jade reports. “Li also feels cheated by Apple’s rebate policy because she was only offered a $100 store credit towards a future Apple store purchase when those customers who bought the same iPhone within a two week window period immediately preceding the cut received the full $200 refund under the company’s price protection policy.”
“‘Market conditions did not require Apple to change its price,'” Li’s attorney, C. Jean Wang of Wang Law Offices, PLLC wrote in the filing. ‘iPhone was selling very well because Apple’s stocks were increasing since August 16, 2007 and rose as high as $144.16 on September 4, 2007, the day before Apple announced that it was cutting the price of iPhone,'” Jade reports. “Li is requesting compensatory damages in the amount of $1 million, punitive damages in the amount to be determined at trial, and a court order that she is entitled to ‘threefold her damages, the costs involved in maintaining this action, and attorney’s fees.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gman” for the heads up.]
We want a 73-foot tall talking pink bunny, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get that, either. However, the chance we’ll get our wish significantly outweighs Li’s, since her attorney seems to think that stock price performance has some meaningful relationship to iPhone unit sales. Apple’s lawyers likely got a good laugh over this one before heading home for the weekend.
Did somebody say “tort reform?”
I think she seriously overestimated the resale price on these things… yikes!
It would be great to see Li & co. stuck with the legal bills and punitive damages after this is thrown out. If it did win, the lawyers would likely keep the money while the alleged victims would probably end up with a $10 gift card for the iTunes store.
@ Henri – You somtimes get that impression being in the USA!
I hope she loses and has to pay Apple’s legal fees.
If Li and the others were hoping to resell their iPhones for a fat profit, they were acting as speculators, which is a risky business. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes you lose big. She needs a good slap (along with the other litigators in her suit).
@Henri
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I live here in the US, and feel it’s waaaaaay outta control. You don’t see suing any and everybody over any and every little thing anywhere but here. I think it’s an occupation of sorts… ppl too lazy to work daily wanting an “easy buck.” Buncha losers! Making everyone pay by driving prices up… the companies have to recoup the money somehow… the suers are to stoopid to realize they’re paying the price for it along with everyone else. Whatta lotta idiots!
And the complete fucking lunacy continues.
Can we file a class action against the two of them for damaging the reputation of Asians everywhere with this ridiculous lawsuit? I think $1 Trillion in damages would do nicely.
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MW: taken… can this really be taken seriously?
What a FSCKING Joke..
If you are an early adopter then sometimes you get hit, How would you like to have one of the first Plasma TV’s only to see how cheap they are now..
From TeachMeFinance.com:
Caveat Emptor — Let the buyer beware, which is to say the purchaser buys at his or her own risk.
From Oxford-English dictionary:
Caveat Emptor – the principle that the buyer is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before purchase.
— ORIGIN Latin, ‘let the buyer beware’.
———————————————————————————————–
The plaintiffs don’t have a leg to stand on.
CASE DISMISSED !!!!!!!!
Did anyone happen to notice that the second generation RAZR is $499 or $299 with a 2 year plan… What a ripoff.
My favorite, of course, is the $1,000,000 in “damages” over her purchase of a $499 phone. How the heck did she come up with that one?
She, like thousands of others, the suit claims, is now the victim of price discrimination in that she cannot resell her iPhone for the same profit as customers who purchased the device after price drop.
So she is suing because she can’t make as much profit as others selling USED merchandise….O.K.
@Larry tate
How has our country (world) gotten so f***ed-up????
It is the mentality of entitlement and no personal responsibility. “The government will take care of me so I don’t have to pay attention and I am entitled to whatever it is I need.”
That’s what happens when people become dependent on the government for their every need through socialist style policies.
So su mi
I believe that she signed a 2 year contract – What is this Trade Up shit she is pulling out of her ass….. and she got back $100 for her 4GB phone and I also got $100 for my 8GB so she got compensated even more.
You know she was trying to make a profit by selling on eBay and she is mad that Apple made enough phones to meet demand and she could not sell hers.. TOO BAD
MW=future as in nothing is future proof
Wow, I’m an attorney, and I didn’t know that any company from whom you buy a product has to guarantee price protection in the event you want to resell it to a third party.
Hey, where’s my old 3G iPod? Lawsuit!
She had to have bought her 4 GB iPhone at least two weeks before the price drop was announced, otherwise she could have returned it and gotten her money back from Apple. And AT&T;gives you 30 days to return it.
I guess Motorola, Nokia, LG, etc. should be prepared for similar lawsuits involving their phones.
@Jeff
This has nothing to with dependence on government — it has to do with people wanting to make a quick buck abusing a system which does not discriminate between reasonable and unreasonable suits.
I’m going to file suit on Ford and Shell because I purchased a New Ford F450 Truck and Ford 2 months later is giving customers a $7,000 rebate and the price drop $3,000 while Shell raised the price of Gas to over $3.00/gallon.
This is an Attorney looking to make a name and cash in. Bet the attorney is working on contingency fees and they are hoping Apple and AT&T;settle out of court.
Sue, sue, sue, sue, sue aaaarrrrgggghhhh..
Why do people always think they are entitled to a free ride.
I sincerely hope the UK never becomes the litigation state America has become. It’s pathetic.
No offense like!
Actually Apple made ATT cut that to 14 days for the iPhone
This is ridiculous. Yeah, it’s frustrating. But Apple took an amazing move in offering the $100 credit. Give me a break.
Maybe she really is emotionally destroyed over this. . .BWAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA ! ! ! ! Sorry. I tried to keep a straight face.
YES!!!! I hope she wins!! Apple is becoming the new Microsoft. I hope we all get compensation from this lawsuit and we get our other $100 back Apple shafted from us. On another note I hope Apple fixes all those phones that are not usable because of their stupid stand on unlocked phones. It is our legal right to unlock our phones, but it if they want re-lock at least let them operate in a locked state with AT&T;. STUPID APPLE AND AT&T;!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently it is time for the courts to start assigning court costs (including the cost of the defense’s attorneys) to plaintiffs in cases such as this. And make the lawyer who filed the lawsuit (i.e. the person who should have advised this was not a good idea) pay 50% of it. And rip a strip off the filing lawyer a mile wide just for good measure, in front of everybody.
In other words, if you are so brain dead stupid as to file a brain dead stupid lawsuit, and you manage to find a brain dead stupid lawyer to do it for you, wasting court admin time, the court’s time, the defense’s time, your stupidity will cost you.
You will be amazed at how quickly the stupid cases will go away.
This is not to discourage reasonable cases, just stupid ones, and, since the judge is already making a judgment on the merit, this is a very minor, easy change.