Shocker! Apple targetted in court over misleading iPhone claims

The premium mobile manufacturer company Apple is being sued by an English local authority over misleading iPhone sale claims. In a class action lawsuit filed by Norfolk County Council, the world’s most valuable firm is accused of making misleading statements regarding the sale of iPhones before it issued a profit warning in January 2019. Norfolk council runs the £3.8billion Norfolk Pension Fund, which is a shareholder of an undisclosed amount in Apple.

The council is suing Apple, chief executive Tim Cook and chief financial officer Luca Maestri, over the claim that they misled shareholders over weak iPhone demand in China in 2018.

As per the reports, Cook told shareholders in November 2018 that Apple was seeing iPhone sale pressure in some markets, but he "would not put China in that category."

However, just two months later, Apple’s revised revenue predictions was shrank due to lower than expected iPhone sales in China.

The company has denied these accusations.

Cook admitted to investors that the firm would miss its profit forecasts by about £6billion in January 2019. But the Norfolk County Council argued that Cook must have known the new iPhone was not selling as strongly as Apple had hoped in November, 2018. The council sued the company in 2020 saying that this cost its pensions fund close to $1 billion. The council runs the £3.9 billion of investment for 90,000 past and present local council workers.. Now with Norfolk's lawsuit being granted class-action status by a California judge it will allow other shareholders as well to join the case. This opens the lawsuit up to any affected shareholder, potentially raising the stakes for the iPhone manufacturer. This means Apple may have to pay up a hefty amount if the allegations are found liable.