Apple fined more than Rs 61 crore for refusing repair of 'disabled' iPhones in Australia

An Australian federal court has slapped a fine of USD 9 million on Apple for lying to customers who owned devices affected by Error 53 that disabled users’ iPhones or iPads after the device was updated or rebooted.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claimed that Apple misled its customers about warranty rights. Authorised service centres refused to repair or replace devices free of charge if they had been previously serviced by an unauthorised third party. The consumer watchdog took Apple to court in April 2017.

The issue first came to light in 2016 when a user, who previously had his home button replaced by a third-party, went to an Apple service centre to fix his cracked screen. The centre refused to fix his phone but over the next few months, many other customers around the world came out with the same problem.

According to a report in The Guardian, the ACCC said that at least 275 Apple customers in Australia were facing the Error 53 problem and that nothing could be done about it.

The root of the problem was the latest iOS update which ran a mandatory security check and would declare the phone unusable showing only the Error 53 message. Apple released a statement explaining that the message was a security feature which protected the device’s fingerprint sensor and even put out a new update which restored all disabled devices.

Apple has told the court that staff training would be improved, make relevant changes on its Australian website and enhance systems for ensuring future compliance. The company has also offered to pay compensation packages to about 5,000 affected customers.