A newly-filed lawsuit accuses Apple of false advertising and unfair competition due to delays in the release of Siri Apple Intelligence features that it promoted as a part of iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 lineup, reports Axios.
The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks class action status and unspecified financial damages on behalf of customers who purchased Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones and other devices.
“Apple’s advertisements saturated the internet, television, and other airwaves to cultivate a clear and reasonable consumer expectation that these transformative features would be available upon the iPhone’s release,” the suit reads.
After confirming that the advertised Siri features would be delayed until the coming year, Apple removed the ads. However, that was after the ads had already been running for several months. Apple is accused of promoting functionality that did not exist, and of continuing to advertise the new Siri capabilities long after the company knew that the new features would not be available on time.
Contrary to Defendant’s claims of advanced AI capabilities, the Products offered a significantly limited or entirely absent version of Apple Intelligence, misleading consumers about its actual utility and performance. Worse yet, Defendant promoted its Products based on these overstated AI capabilities, leading consumers to believe they were purchasing a device with features that did not exist or were materially misrepresented.
The suit mentions an ad that debuted back in September, which featured actor Bella Ramsey promoting Siri capabilities that are now delayed.
The suit notes that Apple recently pulled that ad off YouTube, but says: “Still, it has failed to retract all the similarly false representations in the market that began in the Summer of 2024, much less take any action that would adequately remedy the consumers harmed by the company’s widespread deception.”
The suit was filed by the Clarkson Law Firm, which has also sued Google and OpenAI over their AI practices.
