MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. A resident of the Russian city of Smolensk has presented a letter of claim to the Apple Russia head office after discovering that his iPhone X can be unblocked by his younger brother via Face ID. The man asked Apple to replace his phone and pay him $1 million in compensation, the claimant’s lawyer Roman Ardykutsa told TASS on Tuesday.
"Two brothers contacted me. One is 21, the other is 15… both can unblock the phone. And the phone contains banking data, photos, personal correspondence. You can unblock all the phone’s data. We presented a letter of claim to the manufacturer," he said.
According to Ardykutsa, his client was specifically interested in the phone’s Face ID feature, which is why he chose to purchase an expensive model costing nearly 92,000 rubles (about $1,500).
"The Apple Company does not recommend using Face ID to children under 13 and twins, but in this case, the guys aren’t twins, and they weren’t warned by the manufacturer about anything. We see a violation of consumer rights, because if my client wasn’t interested in this feature, he would have bought a cheaper phone. So, a customer paid extra money for a function that doesn’t work," the attorney added.
In his letter of claim sent to the Apple Russia head office, the customer asks the company to replace his phone with one of required quality, and demands a compensation of $1 million. If the company fails to respond to the claim within 10 days, the customer will take legal action.
According to earlier reports, in winter 2018 two twin brothers from the Russian city of Vladimir contacted the company’s office claiming that the Face ID feature on their iPhone X smartphones recognizes both of them, therefore breaching the law on personal data protection. The claimants demanded a compensation of 20 million rubles (about $341,000). According to Roman Ardykutsa, Apple representatives have contacted the claimants and are currently negotiating the compensation.