Free assistance is costing Apple; no seriously. So far Italy has charged Apple fines of 900,000 euros on divisions of Apple. These divisions were offering a paid technical support service. The issue here is these same divisions failed to tell their customers that they had the right to receive free assistance – whoops.
Now a similar issue is on the rise. The Italian antitrust laws claim that Apple is obligated to offer a free two-year warranty. Currently Apple offers a one year warranty with the ability for customers to pay extra for the second year. So yea, Apple’s standard processes are butting head with Italian law.
Italy isn’t backing down on this one, unlike the Euro Cup 2012 vs. Spain (zing), and slapped Apple with a 30 days to decide ultimatum to either fix their commercial practices in Italy or lose all of their Italian operations for up to 30 days. Talks of fines up to 300,000 euros is also on the line. This doesn’t seem like a bluff so Apple can either get their act together or lose on this market.
The choice is yours Apple, the choice is yours.
[Reuters]
