South Koreans file lawsuit against Apple each demanding one million won

More than 20 000 South Korean iPhone users have filed a class action lawsuit against US technology giant Apple for “illegal location tracking”.

The tech giant was busted earlier this year for tracking user locations. Apple later claimed the tracking was a “bug” and issued software updates to remedy the situation.

This suit follows a similar one by lawyer Kim Hyung-Suk in which he won won one million won (US$933) in June. This was the first such pay-out by Apple’s Korean unit.

Just as he promised, Kim has since led online preparations for a class action suit against Apple and its South Korean unit.

The suit involves 26 691 people demanding one million won each, a spokesman for Kim’s firm said.

“We… electronically filed a suit seeking compensation from Apple and its South Korean unit for emotional damage caused by illegal location tracking by Apple’s iPhone”, the law firm said in a statement.

A separate suit involving another 921 people will be filed soon after the necessary paperwork has been submitted, it said. South Korea has about three million iPhone users.

Apple Korea spokesman Steve Park has declined to comment on the issue.

South Korea’s telecoms regulator said in early August it would fine Apple Korea up to three million won over the disputed feature.

The move followed a probe launched by the regulator in April to check if the collection of location data from iPhone users violated privacy rules. — AFP with additional reporting by Staff Reporter