Apple Faces Charges for Deceptive iPhone 4S' Siri Ads [VIDEO]
A man from New York filed a class action lawsuit against tech giant Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) claiming that the company's Siri ads are deceptive and misleading.
According to plaintiff Frank M. Fazio, the advertisements of Apple on the Siri feature of the iPhone 4S are false and misleading. Fazio also added that the iPhone 4S is merely a more expensive version of its predecessor and Siri does not perform according to how it is advertised.
The complainant claimed that Siri often gave him wrong information or does not understand his queries in the first place. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff specified that "(I)n many of Apple's television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie," the complaint continues.
"In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S's Siri feature, a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri ... Apple never disclosed that the Siri transactions depicted in its television commercials are fiction and that actual consumers cannot reasonably expect Siri to perform the tasks performed in Apple's commercials."
Moreover, Fazio claimed that continuous use of the aforementioned feature drastically increases the users' monthly data usage and can easily push users over their monthly data plans. Fazio further claimed that Apple's advertisements violate the provisions stated in the California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act and the state's Unfair Competition Law.
The lawsuit demands unspecified compensatory and statutory damages as well as an order barring Apple from further "unfair business practices."
Apple had no comment about the issue. However, it should be noted that Apple indicated in its website that Siri is still a beta feature. This is to in order to help build the library of voice input it needs to improve Siri's voice recognition capabilities.
The videos below is one of the commercials of iPhone 4S' Siri.