Back in late December, Apple was fined $1.2 million by Italian regulators over allegations that the company promoted its AppleCare extended warranty program to customers without adequately disclosing that many of the program's benefits were already included in the standard two-year warranty required by Italian law.
As noted by @setteBIT, Apple has now added to its Italian online store a prominent link sharing the court decision (PDF). The document outlines the requirement that Apple modify the marketing terms for its AppleCare services in Italy within 90 days from the December 21 decision to properly reflect what is covered under standard two-year warranties and to widely publicize that information to consumers.
It is unclear whether Apple will continue to appeal the fine, with today's posting of the decision perhaps designed to meet the court's requirements while the case remains ongoing.
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No offense but it's stupid to pay if laws are giving you the same rights. I know that some countries, especially the US, don't have such laws but in countries that have, you should just take advantage of the legal system. Otherwise we wouldn't have lawsuits like this and companies would keep ripping off people.
The laws, even in Italy, don't give you _the same_ rights. They just give you slightly better rights then you might think.
Apple warranty: 1 year unless Apple shows that the problem is your fault.
AppleCare: 3 years unless Apple shows that the problem is your fault.
The Law: 6 months unless Apple shows that the problem is your fault.
A reasonable time / 2 years in Italy if you show that the problem isn't your fault.
So the law gives you more than Apple's warranty, but less than AppleCare. The point is that Apple should have told customers that they have more rights than Apple's warranty, but that doesn't make AppleCare worthless.
Pitty that you are a bit on the wrong side... :P
1st) The article 5 of the Warranty Decree is self explanatory... There is no six months period in Portugal... We have only one single window of 2 years (or 5 depending on the product).
2nd) During those 2 years, the burden of proof that it was (or was not) damage induced by the customer belongs to the manufacter not the customer. I don't have to prove anything. (art. 6 of the Warranty Decree)
3rd) The article 12 in the costumer law says that even if its not the manufacter fault, i can still try to activate the warranty aslong it complies within the warranty decree.
4th) On a side note, we also have a 2 month period where we can and we should complain about manufacturing defects and if any defect is from manufacturing and its a severe defect, we can replace the product for a new one during that period.
Anyway here is the costumer law (in Portuguese):
http://www.acra.pt/_pdf/LEI_DO_CONSUMIDOR.pdf
the warranty decree (again in Portuguese):
http://dre.pt/pdf1sdip/2003/04/083A00/22802283.PDF
And here is another decree about financial and comercial fairplay:
http://dre.pt/pdf1sdip/2007/03/06000/17361739.PDF
With AppleCare you get 3 years trouble free service and you can much more easily sell the unit on eBay because people know if they receive a unit with any problem they just call Apple and they will fix it.
Euro prices have VAT included in them, while the US prices are tax-free (sales tax will be added depending on the state).