SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Apple Inc. has agreed to settle a pair of class-action
lawsuits in Canada alleging it misled customers about the staying power of their
iPods, the latest courtroom truce over the dwindling battery life of early
generations of the device.
According to a court document, the Cupertino-based company is offering
credits for its online store of about $44.75 to people who live in Canada and
bought certain iPods there on or before June 24, 2004.
To be eligible, the battery life of their iPods -- while continuously
playing music -- needs to have dropped to five hours or less for the first and
second generation of the device and four hours or less for the third generation.
The lead plaintiffs in the lawsuits -- iPod owners Ines Lenzi and Bradley
Waddell -- claimed Apple misrepresented iPods' battery life by claiming they
were capable of eight to 10 hours of continual music playback. After recharging,
however, the iPods' battery life began declining.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the notice of the settlement
agreement Apple posted on its Web site.
Motions to approve the settlement are scheduled for June 11 in Quebec
Superior Court and June 20 in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the two
courts where the lawsuits were filed.
In 2005, the company settled a separate class-action lawsuit in the U.S.
over similar claims about iPod battery life. In that case, Apple agreed to give
some iPod owners $50 in store credit or $25 in cash if the battery life in their
early-generation iPods dropped below certain levels.
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