Lately, the Cupertino-based manufacturer has been receiving bad news. First, in mid-November we discovered that Samsung had overtaken Apple in the United States, a former fiefdom for the Bitten Apple Company. And now, Apple is going to have to pay a hefty fine in Italy.
The reason? According to an Italian court, the American manufacturer has lied by promoting the water resistance of its range of mobile phones, especially in advertisements, while through warranty they do not cover this problem.
Apple fined 10 million euros
Water resistance has always been a very controversial topic. Already, when Sony started advertise water resistance on its first phones, it had a lot of trouble in this regard. And the thing is, the promotion of immersibility did not go well at all. Mostly because many users forgot to put the security plug on the audio and microUSB inputs, and the phone became an expensive paperweight.
Sony learned its lesson and slowed down heavily on advertising, but Apple has not stopped showing off its range of waterproof phones. And of course, the Italian government has grown tired of this misleading advertising. Mainly because, if for whatever reason the phone suffers water damage, Apple does not cover it in its warranty.
The fine, which amounts to 10 million euros, it is due to consider that the advertising of the phones launched between 2017 and 2019 has been misleading. Yes, the ads for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, iPhone XR, iPhone XS and XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, promoted water resistance, but the AGCM (Authority for the Defense of Competition and Italian market) considers that the use of these products in real life has nothing to do with laboratory tests.
In the published report, they state that »The advertising did not make it clear that this property can only be found under specific conditions, for example, during controlled laboratory tests with the use of static and pure water, and not under normal conditions of use of the devices by consumers.«, Indicates the AGCM. So to Apple has to pay 10 million euros for the joke.