Owner of exploding iPod threatened with gagging order

[Addadude]

From http://www.independent.ie/world-news/eu ... 49685.html

Owner of exploding iPod threatened with gagging order

By MURAD AHMED
Monday August 03 2009

APPLE attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child's iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company.

The company would offer the family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they ever disclosed settlement terms.

The case echoes previous circumstances in which Apple attempted to hush up incidents when its devices overheated.

Ken Stanborough (47), from Liverpool, dropped his 11-year-old daughter Ellie's iPod Touch last month. "It made a hissing noise," he said. "I could feel it getting hotter in my hand, and I thought I could see vapour." Mr Stanborough said he threw the device out of his back door, where "within 30 seconds there was a pop, a puff of smoke and it went 10ft in the air".

Mr Stanborough contacted Apple and Argos, where he had bought the device for £162. After being passed around several departments, he spoke to an Apple executive on the phone. As a result of the conversation, Apple sent a letter to Mr Stanborough denying liability but offering a refund.

Letter

The letter stated that, in accepting the money, Mr Stanborough was to "agree that you will keep the terms and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential", and that any breach of confidentiality "may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages and legal costs against the defaulting persons or parties".

"I thought it was a very disturbing letter," said Mr Stanborough, who is self-employed and works in electronic security. He refused to sign it.

"They're putting a life sentence on myself, my daughter and Ellie's mum, not to say anything to anyone. If we did say anything, they would take litigation against us. I thought that was absolutely appalling. We didn't ask for compensation, we just asked for our money back."

Last week, it emerged Apple tried to keep a number of cases where its iPod music players had started to smoke, burst into flames and even burned their owners, out of the public eye. (© The Times, London)

[Bob the Builder]

"They're putting a life sentence on myself, my daughter and Ellie's mum, not to say anything to anyone. If we did say anything, they would take litigation against us. I thought that was absolutely appalling. We didn't ask for compensation, we just asked for our money back."

Not a hint of the melodramatic there - it's just a simple settlement agreement. If you want an out of court settlement, then this is what happens. If they don't want to accept the terms, then she can take her chances elsewhere as she seems to have done .... in the great court of public opinion

[FurBaby]

BTB is right, it's a standard settlement agreement confidentiality clause. if they don't take the money offered, they are not bound by the clause. simple.

storm in a teacup.

[uhoo]

Par for the course with legal settlements, I think. Wasn't there something a while back about the lithium ion batteries in gadgets these days being highly unstable? I recall seeing somewhere that Auspost now refuse to send them via airmail?