Apple gets sued, this time for terminating a customer’s Apple ID without any reason, notice, explanation, or whatever. The customer in question is Matthew Price, the plaintiff in the case. He sued apple for terminating his Apple ID where he had reportedly spent around $25,000 on various content. He has now lost all access to said content.
The complaint was filed on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint goes after a service clause of Apple that states that a user with a terminated account cannot access media content they have purchased. The lawsuit alleges that its media services terms and conditions are unlawful and unconscionable as they permit Apple to terminate an Apple ID without giving any reason or notice.
According to the lawsuit, “Apple’s unlawful and unconscionable clause as a prohibited de facto liquidated damages provision which is triggered when Apple suspects its customers have breached its Terms and Conditions”. This means that Apple can terminate an account based on mere suspicions and won’t even give a reason if the account is terminated.
Aside from that, all content purchased in the account has no longer any value anymore after being terminated as the user loses access to everything. All Apple services and content they have purchased gets locked. Matthew’s complaint said that he had apps, in-app purchases, programs, platform extensions, and related services. All of which added up to $25,000.
Matthew said that even his $7 unused iTunes credit was locked and he couldn’t access those. The lawsuit claims that Apple terminated the ID “without notice, explanation, policy or process”. It went on to say that the clause and resulting terminations are “unfair, unlawful, fraudulent, and illegal”.
The lawsuit is looking for class-action status with a nationwide class consisting of all the customers in the US who have had their Apple IDs terminated.
We don’t know why the plaintiff’s ID was terminated but Apple should give reasons and also should refund any unused credit the customer has before locking their account.
