Apple loses suit over used iPhone 4

Cupertino firm replaced nonworking new device with old parts, handset

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish court ruled Friday that Apple violated a consumer law by giving a customer a refurbished iPhone with used components in replacement for his new one that wasn’t working properly.

The Glostrup City Court says consumer David Lysgaard “had a legitimate expectation” to receive a new product, adding that the replacement smartphone “can’t be qualified as a brand new phone.”

Under Danish consumer laws, a dysfunctional and unfixable product should be replaced with a new equivalent product or the money should be refunded.

The three-judge panel with the Copenhagen suburban court of law said Friday that Lysgaard had the right to declare the purchase voided and get his money back after several complaints about problems with the iPhone 4 he bought in June 2011.

“It is fantastic,” Lysgaard told Ekstra Bladet tabloid about the ruling, adding that Apple “should follow Danish law, (and) respect that we have legislation in Denmark.”

“If I hadn’t insisted on my right, they would have continued to break the act on sale of goods,” he was quoted as saying. There was no immediate reaction from Cupertino-based Apple.

Apple sued Lysgaard after losing a 2014 ruling by Denmark’s Consumer Complaints Board.

“If I hadn’t insisted on my right, they would have continued to break the act on sale of goods.” — David Lysgaard, plaintiff