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A self-described iTunes customer from New Jersey is suing Apple Inc.Apple iTunes class action alleging the terms and conditions required to get an Apple ID violate that state’s consumer protection laws.

Plaintiff Thomas Silkowski says the terms and conditions consumers must accept to use Apple services via an Apple ID violate consumer rights under New Jersey law. By requiring consumers to give up clearly established legal rights, he says, Apple violates the New Jersey Truth in Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act.

Signing up for an Apple ID is required for anyone who wants to use the iTunes Store, the Mac App Store, the App Store, the App Store for Apple TV, the iBooks Store, and Apple Music, the lawsuit states. Getting an Apple ID requires agreeing to Apple’s terms and conditions, the plaintiff says. Then accessing the various stores requires agreeing to further sets of terms and conditions.

Those terms and conditions include provisions that grant Apple sweeping absolution from certain responsibilities and require consumers to waive rights against Apple, Silkowski claims. He quotes language from the Apple ID terms and conditions that appears to absolve Apple from practically all possible liability arising from consumer’s use of the various Apple stores and Apple music.

Silkowski argues that the inclusion of these provisions in the Apple ID terms and conditions “deceives consumers into thinking they are enforceable” and leaves consumers mistakenly thinking they are unable to assert rights they would otherwise have under New Jersey law.

Preventing that particular deception is one of the rationales behind the Truth in Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act. He says the TCCWNA prohibits businesses from luring a consumer into a business dealing that includes any provision that would violate any “clearly established legal right of a consumer or responsibility of a seller.”

Contract provisions that waive the consumer’s rights under the TCCWNA are also void, he says, as is contract language that generally states that some of its provisions may be void or inapplicable without clarifying whether those provisions are void or inapplicable specifically under New Jersey law.

Silkowski says that by way of the TCCWNA, the Apple ID terms and conditions violate several consumer protections provided by New Jersey law, such as the right to recover damages for negligent acts, the right to recover punitive damages, and the statutory right to recover for fraudulent and deceptive conduct.

If certified, Silkowski’s proposed plaintiff Class would encompass all New Jersey residents who within the applicable statute of limitations period either signed up for an Apple ID or who agreed to Apple’s terms and conditions after already having signed up for an Apple ID.

Silkowski is asking for a court order certifying his proposed Class with him as its representative and appointing his attorneys as class counsel. He seeks damages of at least $100 for himself and each Class Member, plus attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.

Plaintiff’s counsel are Todd D. Carpenter, Brittany C. Casola, R. Bruce Carlson, Gary F. Lynch, and Kevin Abramowicz  of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP; and Joseph J. DePalma, Katrina Carroll, and Kyle A. Shamberg of Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC.

The Apple ID Consumer Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Silkowski v. Apple Inc., Case No. 5:16-CV-02338, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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