Apple Slapped With Lawsuit Over Alleged Misleading iPhone XS Display Specs
A woman named Courtney Davis has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the Northern District of California over misleading images used to advertise the company's new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max smartphones. Mrs. Davis claimed that the images hid the display notch from view and gave the impression that there wasn't one.
The display notch is an issue that several companies in the smartphone business are currently working to find a solution to. Companies are trying to make smartphones with displays that cover the entire front of the smartphone without anything else in the way, but this has been problematic as companies also want to keep a camera on the phone's front and the phone needs to have a speaker and mic on the phone's front for phone calls. Apple currently has a rather large notch on its display that takes up a considerable amount of space on the front of it's iPhone X and iPhone XS devices.
The primary images used to advertise the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max hide the display notch in a pool of pure black background. Although there are some lighter colored images that show the display notch clearly, Mrs. Davis and her lawyers have claimed that this is not clear enough to Apple's customers and that it is deliberately misleading.
"Images that disguise the missing pixels on the Products' screens are prominent on Defendant's website, as well sa in the advertisements of retailers who sell the products," the complaint said. "These images were relied on by Plantiff Davis, who believed that the iPhone XS and XS Max would not have a notch at the top of the phone."
Mrs. Davis and her lawyers are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, but it seems unlikely that the legal action will be successful. All of the product pages that Apple has up on its website have at least one picture that clearly shows the display notch. It even shows an image of the phone with the notch during checkout, and it really makes you wonder how someone could have possibly purchased the phone and not noticed this. I also can't help but to wonder why she didn't just return the phone and buy a different one if she was unhappy with the display notch.
Due to the relatively slow process of building a class-action lawsuit, it is unlikely that this suit will be pushed through to fruition for several years, and that's assuming that it makes it to court at all and isn't dismissed out of hand by a judge.
The display notch is an issue that several companies in the smartphone business are currently working to find a solution to. Companies are trying to make smartphones with displays that cover the entire front of the smartphone without anything else in the way, but this has been problematic as companies also want to keep a camera on the phone's front and the phone needs to have a speaker and mic on the phone's front for phone calls. Apple currently has a rather large notch on its display that takes up a considerable amount of space on the front of it's iPhone X and iPhone XS devices.
The primary images used to advertise the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max hide the display notch in a pool of pure black background. Although there are some lighter colored images that show the display notch clearly, Mrs. Davis and her lawyers have claimed that this is not clear enough to Apple's customers and that it is deliberately misleading.
"Images that disguise the missing pixels on the Products' screens are prominent on Defendant's website, as well sa in the advertisements of retailers who sell the products," the complaint said. "These images were relied on by Plantiff Davis, who believed that the iPhone XS and XS Max would not have a notch at the top of the phone."
Mrs. Davis and her lawyers are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, but it seems unlikely that the legal action will be successful. All of the product pages that Apple has up on its website have at least one picture that clearly shows the display notch. It even shows an image of the phone with the notch during checkout, and it really makes you wonder how someone could have possibly purchased the phone and not noticed this. I also can't help but to wonder why she didn't just return the phone and buy a different one if she was unhappy with the display notch.
Due to the relatively slow process of building a class-action lawsuit, it is unlikely that this suit will be pushed through to fruition for several years, and that's assuming that it makes it to court at all and isn't dismissed out of hand by a judge.
