Power Adapter Fraud Claims Never Had ‘Evidentiary Support,’ Says Apple

Plaintiff Elizabeth Steines’ April 28 opposition to Apple’s motion to dismiss her consumer fraud complaint “now admits” Apple “made no affirmative misrepresentation” when it stopped packaging power adapters with its series 12 through 14 iPhones (see 2305010046), said Apple’s reply Friday (docket 3:22-cv-03099) in U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois in East St. Louis. Her complaint “fails to state any plausible claim that Apple deceived consumers about power adapters not being included with each new iPhone,” it said. No omission-based theory is viable because Apple didn’t “conceal anything,” it said. The complaint “strains credulity” when it asserts its “affirmative-misrepresentation theory,” said Apple. Notwithstanding what’s “on the box,” at least 19 paragraphs in the complaint “reference unspecified promises or representations by Apple that a power adapter was included with the iPhone,” it said. Apple’s motion to dismiss “demonstrates that these allegations are inadequate to satisfy the pleading burden under Rule 8, much less Rule 9(b),” it said. Now, after forcing Apple to respond to these “meritless claims,” Steines conceded that Apple didn’t affirmatively misrepresent that the iPhone was sold with a charger, it said. Her acknowledgment confirms “that the allegations of deception did not have evidentiary support when they were made,” it said.