A US federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit that accused Apple of misleading customers about the iPhone’s level of resistance to water exposure.
Apple’s advertisements have made various claims about how resistant the iPhone is to damage when exposed to or submerged in water. Some models are supposed to survive depths of up to four meters (13.1 feet) for half an hour.
The plaintiffs claimed that these “false and misleading” misrepresentations allowed the company to charge double the cost of an average smartphone for their products.
Denise Cote, the US District Judge in Manhattan, said that while the claims the three plaintiffs made about Apple’s ads being potentially misleading were plausible, they did not show evidence of damage to their iPhones by “liquid contact” Apple promised they could withstand.
Claims that the company was committing fraud were also rejected by the judge, as Cote said there was a lack of evidence that Apple intentionally overstated its claims about water resistance.
No decision has been made as to whether to appeal the ruling; however, Spencer Sheehan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, did say they were disappointed with the outcome.
