http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece
Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging
order after the child’s iPod music player exploded and the family
sought a refund from the company.
The Times has learnt that the company would offer the
family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement
form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they
ever disclosed the terms of the settlement.
The case echoes previous circumstances in which Apple attempted
to hush up incidents when its devices overheated.
Ken Stanborough, 47, from Liverpool, dropped his 11-year-old
daughter Ellie’s iPod Touch last month. “It made a hissing noise,”
he said. “I could feel it getting hotter in my hand, and I thought
I could see vapour”. Mr Stanborough said he threw the device out of
his back door, where “within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff
of smoke and it went 10ft in the air”.
Mr Stanborough contacted Apple and Argos, where he had bought
the device for £162. After being passed around several departments,
he spoke to an Apple executive on the telephone. As a result of the
conversation, Apple sent a letter to Mr Stanborough denying
liability but offering a refund.
The letter also stated that, in accepting the money, Mr
Stanborough was to “agree that you will keep the terms and
existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential”,
and that any breach of confidentiality “may result in Apple seeking
injunctive relief, damages and legal costs against the defaulting
persons or parties”.
“I thought it was a very disturbing letter,” said Mr
Stanborough, who is self-employed and works in electronic security.
He refused to sign it.
“They’re putting a life sentence on myself, my daughter and
Ellie’s mum, not to say anything to anyone. If we inadvertently did
say anything, no matter what, they would take litigation against
us. I thought that was absolutely appalling.
“We didn’t ask for compensation, we just asked for our money
back,” he added.
Last week it emerged that Apple had tried to keep a number of
cases where its iPod digital music players had started to smoke,
burst into flames and even burned their owners, out of the public
eye.
An American reporter obtained 800 pages of documentation on the
cases from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) following
a Freedom of Information Act request in that country. However, she
was unable to get hold of the documents for months after “Apple’s
lawyers filed exemption after exemption”.
In those cases, CPSC investigators suggested that the iPods’
lithium ion batteries could be the source of the problem.
In 2006 Apple and Dell recalled millions of lithium ion
batteries because of overheating problems in laptop computers
causing fires — some of the biggest consumer electronics recalls in
history. As of September last year, 173,000,000 iPods have been
sold worldwide.
A number of bloggers have reported cases where iPods have
exploded — usually involving older versions of the digital music
players. Last year the Japanese Government warned that iPod Nanos
presented a potential fire risk, saying there had been 14 cases in
the country where the players had caught alight, with two people
suffering minor burns.
In March, a mother in Ohio began court proceedings against
Apple, after her son’s iPod Touch allegedly exploded in his pocket,
burning his leg.
An Apple spokesman said that, as the company had not looked at
the Stanboroughs’ damaged iPod, it could not comment. Argos also
refused to comment.
The Trading Standards Institute said that it could not comment
on whether such letters were standard across the industry, but that
it could understand that Apple would want to protect its reputation
by trying to reach a confidential settlement.
<!--#include
file="m63-article-related-attachements.html"--><!-- BEGIN:
Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements --> <!-- BEGIN:
Comment Teaser Module -->
