The final ruling in a damage suit domestic users filed against Apple for collecting GPS information without their consent will be decided by the Supreme Court. (Image : Yonhap)
CHANGWON, Dec.7 (Korea Bizwire) – The final ruling in a damage suit domestic users filed against Apple for collecting GPS information without their consent will be decided by the Supreme Court.
Mirero, the law firm working for the plaintiffs, announced that 298 iPhone users filed an appeal protesting against the results of the appellate judgment.
Lee Jae-chul, a lawyer at Mirero, commented that the clients cannot accept the decision that Apple has no obligation to pay compensation when the first and second court both recognized that it is illegal to gather users’ GPS information without their consent. “Among the 299 plaintiffs, 298 agreed to take the suit to the Supreme Court,” said Lee.
In August 2011, 28,000 domestic iPhone users filed a suit against Apple in Changwon, demanding compensation of one million won per person, claiming that they suffered mental damage because Apple collected GPS information without their consent.
Since the issue was related to information technology, it took three years for the results of the first trial to come out.
The Changwon court dismissed the case, saying that Apple has no obligation to compensate users since the company admitted to collecting customer information, but there were no information leaks.
Among the 28,000 plaintiffs, 299 protested and lodged an appeal.
The Busan High Court also dismissed the case because it lacked evidence, and the mental damage was not judged to be severe enough to require compensation.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
