Apple faulty phone policy under ComCom scrutiny

The Commerce Commission is investigating Apple over its faulty phone replacement policy. Photo / file

The Commerce Commission is investigating Apple over complaints it has been replacing new faulty products with refurbished or re-manufactured goods.

It comes after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) initiated Federal Court proceedings against Apple after the company allegedly refused to repair phones affected by the "error 53" glitch if they had already been repaired by a third party, usually replacing a cracked screen.

"The ACCC investigation revealed that Apple appears to have routinely refused to look at or service consumers' defective devices if a consumer had previously had the device repaired by a third party repairer, even where that repair was unrelated to the fault," the ACCC said in a statement.

The organisation said Apple had represented to consumers with faulty products that they were not entitled to a free remedy if their Apple device had previously been repaired by third party, "unauthorised repairers".

"However, having a component of the Apple device serviced, repaired, or replaced by someone other than Apple cannot, by itself, extinguish the consumer's right to a remedy for non-compliance with the consumer guarantees," the ACCC said.

The ACCC is seeking pecuniary penalties, injunctions, declarations, compliance programme orders, corrective notices and costs.

New Zealand's Commerce Commission confirmed that it, too, was investigating Apple over its product replacement policy.

"We are investigating complaints that Apple may have made misleading representations to consumers about their rights during the rectification of fault issues," it said in a statement.

"This includes whether it's sufficient for Apple to provide refurbished or re-manufactured goods as a replacement in some circumstances, such as for new products that are faulty."

The Commission had not received any complaints relating to the concerns raised by its Australian counterparts.

Comment has been sought from Apple.