13 year-old going to court against Apple over iPhone water damage dispute

A 13 year-old iPhone user will be going to court against Apple Korea next month over an iPhone 3G repair dispute. Back in October of this year the 13 year-old’s father asked for $251 in compensation from Apple after they refused to fix his daughter’s iPhone 3G, despite the one year warranty. Apple claimed they could not fix his daughter’s iPhone for free as it apparently had water damage, according to the trivial water sensors, which the family denied causing. After this, an attorney for Apple’s Korean front attempted to settle with the family under the table in exchange for the family keeping quiet and not speaking of the incident to the press.

This plan obviously did not work out for Apple and now they have a court hearing opening on January 13th. The family refused Apple’s settlement because their goal was not specifically to receive the monetary compensation but was to make sure others do not face the same issues with Apple’s repair policies. The 13 year-old’s father Lee Chul-ho sums up his feelings about the case below:

Although we filed the suit to receive the repair fees, the ultimate purpose of the suit was aimed at demanding that Apple improve its service policy so that people facing similar situations can get back unjustly paid repair expenses. There is no point of raising the suit if only one individual gets compensation.