Last year, Italian regulators fined Apple $1.2 million due to warranty issues with AppleCare. The issues surrounded Apple not properly disclosing the two-year warranty that is required with new products sold in the country. Now a report is in that Apple could lose those Italian sales all together…
Reuters now reports that Italian regulators are concerned with Apple’s marketing and sales tactics. The country regulators are also considering the notion of suspending Apple’s retail market completely and adding additional fines.
The AGCM said in its monthly bulletin that Apple was continuing to adopt unfair commercial practices in Italy and noted this could eventually lead to the closure of its Italian operations for up to 30 days.
The U.S. group has 30 days to respond.
The AGCM alleges that information provided by Apple about an extra guarantee scheme encourages customers to buy the service without clearly explaining that the company is obliged to offer a two-year free warranty, the source said.
There’s no word on how this whole thing will play out as of yet. Not only will this inconvenience Apple, it would also highly disservice consumers who are in the market for Apple products. Hopefully this all works out for the best.
What do you think? Is it Fair?
