You probably throw most product warranties in the trash without reading them. Not so for an Italian antitrust group, which found Apple retailers’ one-year guarantee lacking and fined the Cupertino, Calif. company 900,000 euros or $1.2 million.
Italy’s Antitrust Authority ruled two Apple retailers failed to provide that country’s consumers with the mandated two-year product warranty, creating “unfair commercial practices.” Apple traditionally provides a one-year warranty on its products, then offers a second year through AppleCare for a price.
The $1.2 million fine was assessed to Apple Sales International, Apple Itali Srl and Apple Retail Italia, according to the Wall Street Journal (requires paid subscription.) The fine was for “not providing clear information to customers on product assistance,” says the report.
Because the Apple units did not tell consumers the warranty was for one year rather than two, Italy fined the tech giant 400,000 euros. Another 500,000 euro penalty was given because Apple did not provide consumers enough information about the AppleCare extension option.
Apple has nine stores in Italy.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
