Skip to main content

Apple sued for blocking Upgrade Program members from pre-ordering the iPhone 7

iphone 7 q3 sales
Image used with permission by copyright holder
it looks like Apple has a another rendezvous scheduled with its old friend the courthouse. The company has been sued, this time for blocking members of its iPhone Upgrade Program from pre-ordering the new iPhone 7.

The suit accuses Apple of misleading members of the iPhone Upgrade Program, which tend to be the biggest Apple fans. It’s important to note that the fine print for the Apple Upgrade Program does say that Apple “reserves the right to refuse or limit the quantity of any device for any reason,” according to a report from ZDNet.

Apple is exercising that right in pre-orders of the iPhone 7, allowing non-members of the program to upgrade right away, while not allowing members to upgrade through the program. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Upgrade Program customers won’t be able to upgrade at all. The complaint notes that Emil Frank was unable to upgrade from the 64GB iPhone 6s to the black or jet black iPhone 7 in either 128GB or 256GB, and that he won’t be eligible to do so until November.

“While scores of customers signed up for the program and were ready to take advantage of the every-year upgrade with the release of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus on September 9, 2016, Apple had a different plan in mind,” notes the complaint. “It allowed non-iPhone Upgrade Program customers to snap up the limited inventory of the new devices while telling countless iPhone Upgrade Program customers to ‘check back later.'”

So what is the plaintiff seeking? The complaint is essentially asking Apple to give reimbursements to customers of the Upgrade Program who made payments in 2015 while waiting for the new iPhone. It also wants Apple to stop restricting the number of units available to members of the program, and is asking that Apple ensure that customers still get access to the 2017 iPhone when it’s launched next September.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Apple offers peek at how it stress tests the iPhone
Apple testing the water resistance of an iPhone.

Apple tests the water resistance of an iPhone. MKBHD

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee visited an Apple lab recently to see up close how the company tests the durability of new iPhone handsets.

Read more
Apple’s AI plans for the iPhone just leaked. Here’s everything we know
The back of a Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple is the only major name in the world of Big Tech that hasn’t made its ambitious AI plans public yet. But that will change in a few weeks, with a focus on reimagining the iPhone experience. Bloomberg, citing internal sources, has detailed how Apple plans to integrate generative AI experiences with iOS 18, the next major build of its iPhone operating system.

The company plans to push new AI-powered capabilities not just in such in-house apps as Safari and Maps, but also in experiences like the notification system and a supercharged Spotlight search. Notably, Apple will push the bulk of AI processing to the iPhone’s silicon, and only a minor portion of it will be pushed to the cloud.

Read more
Something important just happened to the iPhone 16 series
iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max larger displays.

iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max renders MacRumors

With  the calendar about to turn to June, attention on the upcoming iPhone 16 series will soon shift into an even higher gear. Along those lines, word is that production on a critical component for at least three of these phones is about to begin.

Read more