Apple forced to cough up cash $945 over iPhone location tracking in South Korea and the payment was awarded last month, but now Kim’s law firm is prepping a class action suit that could put further pressure on the Cupertino crew, especially in the home of Samsung. This could just be the first in a series of pay outs and American courts may look to the decision when considering the fate of other plaintiffs looking to ring a few bucks out of iDevice purveyors. Kim’s law firm is now preparing a class action lawsuit against Apple for the unauthorized data collection and Apple is also being sued in the U.S. over its location tracking……………
A South Korean court ordered Apple to pay a man who sued over his iPhone keeping track of his location and over 17,000 iPhone users in Korea have signed on to a class-action lawsuit against Apple to demand damages for emotional distress caused by its location tracking. The suit, led by 36-year-old lawyer and iPhone user Kim Hyeong-seok, is enlisting plaintiffs through a Web site, www.sueapple.co.kr. According to Kim, 10,000 of the 17,000 people who have signed up have already made payments of 16,900 won ($15.98) for court costs using their mobile phones. With 3 million iPad and iPhone users in Korea, market watchers expected more people to join the lawsuit, creating more problems for Apple Korea. The Web site was down yesterday for hours because of heavy traffic, forcing Kim’s law firm to set up another Web site, http://cafe.naver.com/sueapple, to answer questions. Kim told that he will file a series of class-action suits in Seoul and Changwon, North Gyeongsang and seek 1 million won in compensation per plaintiff. He plans to file the first round of lawsuits in Seoul and Changwon after collecting applications through the end of July. Apple Korea has remained tight-lipped about the recent developments, maintaining that there was nothing to comment on. Kim recently won damages in a local court from Apple Korea after suing the company in April, saying its location tracking violated his privacy and caused him emotional damage and stress. In addition to location tracking, Korean iPhone users have complained about dropped calls and poor service at Apple’s customer service centers.
