Norfolk County Council vs Apple

Distinctly Average · March 15

Summary

Norfolk County Council successfully won a £385m class action lawsuit against Apple for covering up poor sales in China

Quotes

Quote

Apple has agreed to pay $490m (£385m) to settle a lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council.

The class action alleged the tech giant's boss, Tim Cook, defrauded shareholders by covering up lower demand for iPhones in China.

Norfolk Council said a pension fund it administered lost money as a result of Mr Cook's actions.

In a statement, the Norfolk Pension Fund said it was "very proud of this recovery for investors."

The statement continued: "We are mindful that we are stewards of pensions relied upon by thousands of families and individuals.

"When and where it's warranted, we will take decisive action to recover losses when our participants' investments are harmed by fraud."

The BBC has approached Apple for comment.

The class action lawsuit - meaning it is on behalf of a group of claimants - centred around comments made by Apple's chief executive Tim Cook.

He told investors on 1 November 2018 that there was "sales pressure" in some countries but he "would not put China in that category."

However, two months later, on 2 January 2019, Apple downgraded its quarterly revenue forecast, citing tensions between China and the US - leading to a sharp drop in Apple's share price.

Within that two-month window, reports emerged that Apple had told its top smartphone assemblers to "halt plans for additional production lines" for the recently released iPhone XR.

My thoughts

While this is just pin money for Apple, for those loosing out on their pensions this is a significant amount. Apple obviously didn’t want a court ruling on this so have seemingly done the right thing. However, it should not have taken 4 years to do so. So this is probably just another case where only the lawyers win.

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68580235