As we reported last year, a fan named Noam Lazebnik has filed a lawsuit against Apple over its decision to split the fifth and final season of AMC’s hit show Breaking Bad into two sections, the “fifth season” and the “final season.” The distribution scheme matched up with the network’s decision to air the season over the course of two years, but fans who purchased “season 5” on iTunes were expecting to get all 16 episodes, but later learned they’d only get the first eight.
To Apple’s credit, once the issue came to light, the company refunded purchases of “the final season” to customers who believed they had been misled.
Today, a judge ruled that the case would be allowed to move forward despite Apple’s insistence that Lazebnik had not actually bought the season, but rather his son-in-law had done so using Lazebnik’s credit card (with his permission). According to Apple, Lazebnik did not see any guarantee that he would receive all 16 episodes, and therefore cannot sue for false advertisement.
The judge decided that it wasn’t yet the appropriate time to answer that question, and has put the burden of the decision on the jury, should the case go that far. A few other elements of the case have been thrown out, however, including a claim of breach of contract because there is no proof to back up Lazebnik’s claim that any such agreement existed.
Nonetheless, the case will move forward toward a class-action jury trial, though it may never actually reach that point anyway.
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This culture of suing for stuff that doesn’t even happen to you… And a judge allows it.
Common sense is dead, isn’t it?
Okay, let me get this straight. The decision was made by AMC yet Apple is responsible. THEN Apple refunded the secondary season pass. THEN to push things further, it wasn’t even him that made the purchase. I am usually against big corporations, but this time I hope Apple mops the floor with this guy.
Like every Class Action, this is a ton of money for the lawyers. Even if Apple loses, this guy won’t see more than the price of the TV seasons in iTunes.
To any intelligent hymn, for all intents and purposes, there were 6 seasons, due to AMC’s episode order split. I’m sure Apple lost money by giving people 8 episodes for free, because AMC certainly didn’t give them to Apple for free.
I can see how a judge would allow it to move forward considering it was the plaintiff’s credit card. BUT, allowing it to go forward when Apple had already quickly responded to the original issue and issued full refunds at that time? Ludicrous.
When this was going down I was happy that the guy was suing as I felt wronged. Once Apple rectified the situation and refunded the money there was nothing left to be upset about. The guy went from principled defender of justice to a money grubbing asshole in my mind.
I hope he wins his $40 at the expense of paying a lawyer thousands and thousands of dollars; as a stock holder I’m fine with Apple spending a few million on defending against this.
More Apple dirty laundry. Film at 11.
How in the hell is this dirty laundry ??
Was this guy somehow hurt by this. I just do not understand these law suits and the judge that is letting this go. He got a refund. Move on a**hole. People like this should be charged every single cent involved in processing this.