Apple Facing False Advertising and Fraud Suit

Apple’s motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims it is tricking iTunes customers into buying TV bundles by artificially inflating the episode count has been denied by a federal judge in California. Plaintiffs claim Apple fooled customers into buying season bundles by counting promotional clips as episodes. Using the iTunes store on Apple devices, consumers can buy individual episodes, complete seasons or a season pass, which offers all current and future episodes for the season. This lawsuit targets the third option, and claims Apple is misrepresenting the number of episodes in the season pass.”Consumers purchase the Season Features, reasonably believing that each episode is a standard, plot-based episode and that, by purchasing the Season Features, they are receiving a significant discount over purchasing each episode individually,” states the complaint. “However, because many of the episodes in the Season Features are promotional clips, consumers are not receiving the number of episodes and the discount they expected.” Apple argued that a reasonable consumer would understand “episode” could include ads, trailers and promo videos that aren’t part of the overall narrative, but U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton denied the motion in its entirety.