Apple’s legal team are likely to be taking another battering this week as it is revealed that yet another lawsuit has been filed against the company. The complaint this time is over the newly released super-gadget, the iPad, which has been selling in its millions.
In a lawsuit filed in California last week, three plaintiffs allege that the iPad easily overheats and switches itself off when exposed to everyday weather conditions. The disillusioned complainants – named as John Browning, Jacob Balthazar and Claudia Keller – are also critical of Apple’s advertising campaign for the iPad, claiming it creates false expectations about using the device like a book. The lawsuit reads:
“Using the iPad is not ‘just like reading a book’ at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental conditions,”
“This promise, like other portions of Apple’s marketing material for the iPad, is false.”
Overall, the lawsuit makes allegations of deceptive marketing and fraud to breaches of consumer protection and business laws, as well as complaints relating to the selling of defective products. This bundle of accusations makes it difficult to determine whether it will be Apple’s professional indemnity or product liability insurance policy footing the legal bills, but defending the iPad in court is expected to be expensive either way.