Apple's hypocrisy over the company's claim about iPhone water resistance is challenged in court
Until phone manufacturers start covering water damage in their warranties, you can assume that there is always the possibility that water can find a way into your device and damage it. Yet Apple, like most phone makers, will say that their handsets are able to survive getting submerged to a certain depth of clear water for a specific length of time and emerge from the water in perfect working condition.
You can see the hypocrisy in this, right? On one hand, Apple says that its premium handsets can be submerged in clear water to a depth of 6 meters (nearly 20 feet) for up to 30 minutes. Yet, should you take your iPhone 15 Pro to that depth causing water damage to the device, the cost of the repair will not be covered by Apple's warranty. Now an attorney in Quebec is taking Apple to task for failing to cover the cost of repairing iPhone models damaged by water despite advertising that these phones can be submerged.
The plaintiff's iPhone stopped working immediately after coming into contact with water near a pool
The case, which attorney Joey Zukran would like to turn into a class action suit, revolves around a 19-year-old student who was in Mexico when her iPhone got wet near a pool. Zukran said that the iPhone she purchased brand new eight months ago stopped working immediately. His client took the damaged handset to the Genius Bar inside an Apple Store and was told that it could not be repaired because the device came in contact with water.
Apple's iPhone warranty does not cover water damage. | Image credit-Apple
"So the warranty says that it does not apply the data liquid contact, which is completely ridiculous when you look at the marketing that Apple uses. How can you exclude liquid when you advertise that it can fall in a pool and be fine?...In the case of my clients, and many people who contact their office, they're not fine. Apple refuses to fix it, and the only remedy is to buy a brand new phone." Joey Zukran, attorney for the iPhone owner
Zukran, who plies his trade for the LPC Avocats firm, wants Apple to void the part of its warranty that prevents water damage from being covered. He also wants Apple to reimburse those who had to pay to repair their iPhone damaged by water or purchase a new unit, and pay the members of the class an additional $500 each.
"So you essentially have a contract that says your phone is 'Oops resistant', you can drop it in the pool, and you'll be fine, only to come a few paragraphs later and say liquid contact voids your warranty. So you have two contradictory clauses in a consumer contract, which, again, according to the law, has to be interpreted in favour of the consumer or the adherent." Joey Zukran, attorney for the iPhone owner
The attorney previously racked up a victory against Apple and the iPhone back in 2018. Zukran and another attorney successfully sued Apple over a warranty issue involving the iPhone battery. The original ruling against Apple was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2021.
In 2022, a U.S. district judge dismissed a suit charging Apple with misrepresenting iPhone water resistance
In February 2022, a U.S. lawsuit charging Apple with "false and deceptive" misrepresentations of the iPhone's water resistance (sound familiar?) was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote. The judge said that it was plausible to believe that Apple's ads could mislead consumers into thinking that the iPhones they purchased were protected from water ingress. However, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs presented no evidence proving that their phones were damaged by "liquid contact." The plaintiffs also had no proof that Apple planned to misrepresent the claims it made about the iPhone's water resistance.
In 2020, Apple was fined the equivalent of $12 million by an Italian agency. The company was found to have made claims about iPhone water resistance without mentioning that the numbers quoted by Apple were legit only under ideal laboratory conditions. The agency claimed that in real-life use, the iPhone models tested could not come close to reaching the claims made by the company. Sounding quite familiar, another part of the lawsuit accused Apple of using its water resistance claims to sell iPhone models but would refuse to offer warranty coverage to units that suffered water damage.
It might take a landmark legal defeat against Apple or another major smartphone manufacturer to get them to cover water damage in the warranty offered with the purchase of a new phone. Such a ruling could have major reverberations throughout the industry since for the most part, consumers are blamed for any water that makes its way into their phones regardless of what the manufacturer says about water resistance in advertisements.
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