Apple Fights Siri Speech Recognition Class Action Lawsuit

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Apple Inc. urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to reconsider a determination that consumer complaints about Siri’s speech recognition capabilities were too vague to justify a class action lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Apple urged the appellate court not to grant the iPhone users’ request for a rehearing.

Apple was successful in getting the Siri class action lawsuit dismissed in February 2014. The initial Apple Siri class action lawsuit was filed in 2012 and alleged that the voice-activated Siri assistant did not work as advertised.

The plaintiffs claimed that Siri performed better in demonstrations than in actual use. The Siri class action lawsuits were subsequently consolidated with similar cases.

The Siri speech recognition class action lawsuit sought to represent a nationwide Class of purchasers of an Apple iPhone iPhone 4S based on allegations that Siri failed to perform as advertised. The plaintiffs asserted claims of intentional misrepresentation and violations of California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

Apple says that the plaintiffs argued in general terms about the company’s advertisements for Siri. “But they did not allege any actionable misrepresentations on which they relied, and they failed to allege facts connecting any of Apple’s alleged representations about Siri to the purported performance issues they claimed existed,” Apple argues.

Apple claims that the plaintiffs were instructed by the court to clarify their claims about how Siri allegedly failed to perform as advertised. However, Apple argues that the plaintiffs failed to clarify their allegations as requested.

“Instead, they claimed that the overall ‘message’ or ‘impression’ of Apple’s advertising campaign led them to believe that Siri would operate ‘on a consistent basis,’ but Siri allegedly ‘often’ failed to do so,” Apple claims.

“Under this theory, Apple’s advertisements allegedly gave the impression that Siri would work ‘without a single hiccup’ and ‘without complications,’ and would never fail to provide ‘adequate response[s]’ to any and all questions and commands,” Apple argues.

“But Plaintiffs did not allege any actual representation that Siri would work perfectly,” Apple claims. “To the contrary, Apple made clear at the time that Siri is ‘not perfect,’ that it would ‘improve it over time,’ and users ‘can’t ask [Siri] everything.’”

A split panel found that the plaintiffs’ pleadings were vague regarding the iPhone 4S Siri speech-recognition capabilities. The plaintiffs followed up to seek a rehearing of the case based on a “supposed conflict” between two 9th Circuit cases.

“The Court should reject Plaintiffs’ last-ditch effort to revive their insufficiently pleaded claims by attempting to manufacture a conflict between Vess and Kearns,” Apple argues. The tech giant argues that the plaintiffs don’t meet the less-stringent standards required to bring non-fraud claims.

The plaintiffs are represented by Steven Hubachek, Kevin Green, Mark Dearman, Shawn Williams, Paul Geller and Kathleen Barber of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP; Ben Barnow and Erich Schork of Barnow & Associates PC; and James Notis and Jennifer Sarnelli of Gardy & Notis LLP.

The Siri Speech Recognition Class Action Lawsuit is In re: iPhone 4S Consumer Litigation, Case No. 14-15487, in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

UPDATE: On May 26, 2016, reaffirming their previous dismissal order, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel voted to deny a Class request for rehearing of a putative class complaint against Apple that accuses the company of misrepresenting the speech capabilities of its iPhone 4S product.