Apple offers iPad refunds in Australia over 4G compatibility issue

GlobalPost

Apple has offered to refund Australians who bought its new iPad, which cannot connect to any 4G network in the country despite the company's claims.

And in an effort to avoid a legal battle, the Wall Street Journal reported, Apple's senior counsel Paul Anastassiou told the Federal Court in Melbourne that the company had also proposed to publish a clarification on its website and at sales outlets regarding the incompatibility of the iPad 3 with 4G networks in Australia.

However, according to the Fairfax press, Apple was refusing to put corrective stickers on packaging for the new iPad, claiming that such a move would be "cumbersome."

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Australia's consumer watchdog, the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is taking legal action against Apple over the sale of a product called "iPad with Wifi + 4G" which cannot connect with Australian 4G mobile networks.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation cited lawyers for the ACCC as accusing Apple of breaching consumer law by promoting the device as being able to connect to high-speed 4G mobile networks using a sim card. 

The Federal Court heard Apple ignored written warnings from the ACCC that it was misleading consumers on March 15, the day before the new iPad went on sale, and on March 20.

Apple responded by denying that there was any misleading conduct, ACCC attorney Colin Golvan said.

Apple is arguing that it never specified the iPad could connect to the network of Australia's biggest Telco, Telstra, rather that it would work on what is globally accepted to be a 4G network — not the network that Telstra defines as 4G.

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