Apple faces scrutiny over its warranty advertising

EUROPEAN UNION (EU) Justice Minister Vivian Reding is calling for an investigation of Apple's "unacceptable" advertising of warranties.

According to a letter obtained by Bloomberg, Reding is calling for all 27 EU countries to probe the way Apple advertises its product warranties. She claimed that Apple fails to let customers know that they are entitled to a free two-year warranty for products such as the Iphone 5 and Ipad purchased in Europe, as required by EU law.

"Apple prominently advertised that its products come with a one-year manufacturer warranty but failed to clearly indicate the consumers' automatic and free-of-cost entitlement to a minimum two-year guarantee under EU law," Reding said to ministers in the leaked letter. "These are unacceptable marketing practices."

Bloomberg reported that while the European Commission can't take action against Apple over the allegedly misleading advertising, it can pressure others to do so.

Apple has already been placed under scrutiny for its advertising of warranties in Italy, where the firm was fined $1.16m in December - a fine that the firm is, unsurprisingly, appealing.

Apple was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. µ