Industry Committee on March 1st, 2018

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Just one second, please.

[Simon Potter]

—and what I am saying...Mr. Chair, with respect, what I'm saying is—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

One second, please. Mr. Potter?

[Simon Potter]

—that there's a considerable amount of litigation out there.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay, so it's a refusal to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Excuse me. Thank you.

They're here voluntarily. They're not here under subpoena.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I understand that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Please let Mr. Potter finish answering his question, and it's up to them how they choose to answer the question.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

So the answer is a refusal.

Of options in terms of notifying customers of the issue, encouraging battery replacements, making it easier to replace the batteries, why not give consumers the option and make it easy to replace batteries? You have airplane mode and low battery mode.

Why was the best course to proceed with this solution and not disclose to customers that there would be slower performance?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

To prevent the unexpected shutdown.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay.

You're reducing prices through December 2018 for batteries. Is there an estimated cost to Apple for that?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

Well, it depends on the number of people who take us up on the replacement program, but I can—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Has Apple not estimated a cost?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

We don't stand to profit from it, if that's what you're asking.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Right, so there's a cost to Apple for offering this through December 2018. Apple has not estimated the cost to the company.

[Jacqueline Famulak]

I don't have that information for you.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Can that information be provided to the committee?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

I'm not sure we would disclose that.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay.

Is Apple ready to fully compensate consumers who purchase the new phone unnecessarily as a result of the material non-disclosure?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

The circumstances under which somebody decides to upgrade a phone are individual, so it would be very difficult to say that someone went out and purchased a new phone because their battery was low. All batteries degrade over time, so people eventually—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

We're not talking about batteries, though. We're talking about slow performance of the phone. If they don't know why there's slow performance, because there's been an update that slows their phone that they're unaware of, and they purchase a new phone because of that material non-disclosure, will they be compensated?

[Simon Potter]

If you'll allow me, Mr. Chair, the question, or a variation of it, is posed in four class actions in Canada and over 50 class actions in the United States. There will be a result, one way or another, on those things as to whether there was a material non-disclosure and who qualifies to be a member of the class in each case. Perhaps that's better left to those cases.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thanks again to the witnesses.

Canadians are big fans of your products. They really like them. I think in my house we have eight of your products. One of the things Mr. Poole brought to my attention that I wasn't aware of, as this was coming down the pike, was that there were Apple customers who went to Apple stores and had their devices evaluated, and they were told that there wasn't really a problem that was...I'm quoting improperly.

With this as a new experience for Apple, I suppose, has Apple put in some internal operational changes so that if something like this comes up, it could be brought to the public's attention a little quicker and maybe find a quicker solution?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

In terms of putting together a replacement program?