For a long time now, Apple has been facing certain legal problems from many different law firms. According to the reports released in The Guardian, there are a number of law firms who have filed lawsuits against the rumor that Apple has been disabling all the models of iPhone 6 which has had some repair work done on them from any outside source, which in turn affects the Touch IDs. The mysterious message, “Error 53” has occurred on all the iPhones and customers had their iPhone 6s disabled and became unusable. This came as a big surprise as well as a blow to all the users of the iPhone 6 model.
Later on, it was found out that the iPhone 6 models, which had had any kind of repairs done on it by unauthorized service men, were all disabled by Apple. A fairly researched post on iFixit stated that whenever any third party service is done on iPhones, using different components than the original, the Touch ID shows a mismatch in the validation. Thus the components cannot sync up like original parts and thus cannot pass the validation test.
Later on, an Apple spokesperson stated in an interview that whenever these non‐original parts cannot validate itself on the Touch ID checkup, an error message is automatically generated to make the smart phone unusable. This is done quite intentionally in order to keep the private information of the user, like fingerprints, safe. At times, simply damaged phones also have this issue, but it get fixed only is an authorized service company fixes the device using original components.
On the other hand, The Guardian reports that an UK based barrister stated that disabling the iPhones without providing any prior notice to the users is a criminal act and falls under the Criminal Damage Act of 1971. According to them, by enforcing this error message, Apple is indirectly forcing the users of iPhone 6 to only use validated and authorized servicing who use original parts. At times, the charges of original parts are much more than the non‐originals and thus many may opt to use the second option.
Moreover, a law firm in Seattle, PVCA has announced that they plan to represent Apple customers for free against the company in a class action law suit. It has been also found out that Apple themselves are planning to face the lawsuits actively and face the outrage of the customers. a retail source claims that Apple stores at certain areas have got a green signal and is allowed to repair the iPhones which have these problems by replacing the duplicate touch
screen and the other non‐original components that may have been fitted in the Apple iPhones. All these will be done at a high cost which is usually the amount paid by customers who have gone past their warranty period. Moreover, these repairs will only be meant for iPhone users who have the “Error 53” problem and no other users.
