A California federal judge has allowed a class action lawsuit filed against Apple by “Breaking Bad” fans to move forward in a late August decision, keeping the Unfair Competition Law charges.
Apple’s iTunes sold a “Season Pass” of “Breaking Bad” Season 5, which customers purchased for $21.99 for the high definition version and $13.99 for the standard definition version. Season 5 had a total of 16 episodes.
This one time fee was supposed to give customers “‘all current and future episodes of Breaking Bad, Season 5,'” said plaintiff Noam Lazebnik, M.D. in the iTunes Breaking Bad Class Action Lawsuit.
“The iTunes informational page regarding the ‘Season Pass’ option explained that ‘purchasing a Season Pass gets you every episode in that season and at a better price than if you were to purchase it one at a time,” Lazebnik explained further in his “Breaking Bad” class action lawsuit.
However, he alleges that iTunes changed that guarantee mid-season.
“When the second half of Season 5 started to air on AMC and became available on iTunes in early August of 2013, iTunes customers who had purchased a Season Pass did not have access to the new episodes,” the iTunes class action lawsuit explained.
Apple apparently “deemed the new episodes a ‘Final Season’ that it did not consider part of Season 5, and expected individuals who had already purchased Season 5 to spend another $22.99 or $14.99 in order to access it.”
Labeznik purchased the Season Pass for “Breaking Bad” in September 2012 with his son-in-law Jeremy Tor, and they watched the first eight episodes of Season 5. Tor had made the purchase, using Labeznik’s credit card.
The allegations against Apple in the iTunes class action lawsuit include breach of contract, violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL).
Apple argued that the iTunes class action lawsuit should be dismissed because it lacked standing and the tech giant also made arguments against the other charges.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila said in his decision on the motion to dismiss the Apple class action lawsuit the Labeznik “has alleged facts sufficient to establish standing under both Article III and the UCL.”
Judge Davila said that it did not matter that the “Breaking Bad” season was purchased by Tor because it was purchased with Labeznik’s credit card.
The California federal judge dismissed the breach of contract claim because the contract existed “between [Apple] and Mr. Tor, not defendant and plaintiff.”
He also tossed the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act allegation because “the Season Pass is not a ‘good’ within the meaning of the CLRA because, as plaintiff acknowledges, it is either software or a license, not a ‘tangible chattel.'”
However, Judge Davila kept the Unfair Competition Law, which “prohibits ‘unlawful, unfair or fraudulent’ business acts or practices.”
Apple argued in it’s motion to dismiss that it “never stated explicitly that there would be 16 episodes in Season Five of Breaking Bad,” but it did say that it would include “‘every episode in that season.'”
The California Supreme Court clarified the UCL in 1985 as prohibiting “‘not only advertising which is false, but also advertising which, although true, is either actually misleading or which has a capacity, likelihood or tendency to deceive or confuse the public.'”
Judge Davila said that the dispute between Apple and Labeznik centers around whether the “statements regarding the sale of Season 5 of Breaking Bad were ‘likely to deceive’ the public.”
For these reason, he kept the UCL charges.
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