AN ENGLISH council is to take on Apple in a class-action lawsuit over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.
Norfolk County Council is accusing the company and CEO Tim Cook of concealing poor demand in China in comments made in 2018.
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Cook had told investors that while Apple was seeing sales pressure in some markets, he “would not put China in that category.”
However, just two months later, Apple shrank its revised revenue predictions as a result of lower than expected iPhone sales in China.
It was the first time Apple had slashed sales forecasts in 17 years and sent shares plummeting by eight per cent.
Norfolk County Council claims that Cook must have known at the time that sales in China were stalling.
The council says that this cost its pensions fund close to $1billion.
The Norwich-based Norfolk Pension Fund controls £3.9billion of investment for 90,000 past and present local council workers.
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Norfolk’s lawsuit was granted class-action status by a California judge over the weekend after Apple attempted to have it thrown out.
The move opens the lawsuit up to any affected shareholder, potentially raising the stakes for the iPhone maker.
It means Apple may have to fork out a larger payout if found liable.
Any trial would be likely to see Cook take the stand.
Apple denies any wrongdoing and has argued that Cook’s comments protected statements of opinion and not financial advice.
It says that the claim “fails to plead any actionably false or misleading statement”.
Norfolk County Council did not respond to a request for comment.
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In other news, the creators of a chilling new horror game say that the title is so disturbing they’ve been forced to censor it on PlayStation.
Apple has announced updates to AirTags following claims that the coin-sized tracking devices are being used to stalk people.
Boeing has sunk $450million into a flying taxi startup that hopes to whisk passengers across cities by the end of the decade.
And, personalised smart guns that can be fired only by verified users may finally become available to U.S. consumers this year.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
