A lawsuit filed against Apple in California this week accuses the company of violating the state's false advertising law and other consumer laws, by intentionally misleading customers into thinking that they are purchasing digital e-books from the Apple Books app in perpetuity, when instead they are only purchasing revokable licenses to the books.The proposed class action complaint explains that Apple is required to pull a digital book or audiobook from the Apple Books app if and when it loses a license to that content, resulting in the content no longer being available in the app's store.As a result, the complaint alleges that some customers have unexpectedly found that digital books they previously purchased were no longer available to re-download, despite having paid for them.
Apple removes books without warning, and without providing refunds, the complaint adds.As noted in the complaint, the purchase screen in the Apple Books app does not include a link to any terms of service or licensing information.However, in order to set up and use an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or other Apple device, users are required to agree to Apple's various software license agreements, which all state the following: In the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, Apple states the following: The lawsuit, Morehouse et al v.
Apple, Inc., was filed in a U.S.district court in San Jose on Tuesday.The plaintiffs are seeking up to $5 billion in damages, with the proposed class being all individuals who purchased a digital book or audiobook from the Apple Books store within the to-be-determined class period.
A judge has yet to be assigned to the case, and it remains to be seen if the class action lawsuit is certified and proceeds to trial.The complaint was filed by law firm Siri & Glimstad LLP.
