Bengaluru woman accidentally spills coffee on Mac, sues Apple for repair, loses case

Bengaluru: A Bengaluru woman accidentally spilled coffee on her brand new Apple laptop. She was charged for repairs despite having AppleCare+ coverage for product damage. She sued Apple India, but lost the case. 

The company argued that unexpected or unintentional damage to internal parts due to liquid spills weren’t covered under AppleCare+. The company won the lawsuit. 

On January 5, 2017, the thirty-one-year-old lady bought a MacBook Pro 13-inch laptop. She bought an AppleCare+ coverage for Rs 22,900, which guaranteed unlimited incidents of accidental damage protection, in addition to paying Rs 1,74,307 for the device.

She unintentionally spilled coffee on the keyboard a few days later, at which point the device stopped working. She walked over to the store, complained, and dropped off the laptop. The seller returned the damaged laptop, claiming that AppleCare+ did not fully cover internal damage to the laptop from the liquid.

The woman filed a complaint on January 23 alleging unfair trade practices against Apple India Pvt Ltd, iCare Ample Technologies, and Imagine Store, and she went to the third additional district consumer disputes redressal commission.

The consumer court stated in its ruling that the client had contacted Apple's authorized service center and had the damaged laptop fixed on February 4 even though they had approached the court. She had failed to substantiate her claim and had hidden the information from the complaint.