Man Sues Apple For $5 Million Over iTunes Charges

After being charged twice for a song he downloaded in the iTunes Store, Robert Herskowitz is taking Apple to court. Claiming Apple "double-bills" with “troubling regularity,” the man is suing the Cupertino, California-based company for $5 million, according to The Next Web. Herskowitz claims that after making a $1.29 purchase in iTunes, Apple charged him twice for the song. When he contacted Apple over the error, he received the following response:

Your request for ‘Whatya Want from Me’ was carefully considered; however, according to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale, all purchases made on the iTunes store are ineligible for refund. This policy matches Apple’s refund policies and provides protection for copyrighted materials.

According to Herskowitz, Apple violated their own terms of agreement as well as California state and common laws. In addition, he contends the agreement governing use of Apple’s digital stores “says no such thing” about all purchases made on the iTunes Store being ineligible for refunds. One look at Apple’s Sales and Refund policy, however, says otherwise. In it, Apple states:

The following products are not eligible for return: electronic software downloads, subscriptions to the Software-Up-To-Date program, Apple Gift Cards, and any Apple Developer Connection products.

The company’s iTunes Store – Terms and Conditions policy is even clearer, stating:

All sales and rentals of products are final.

Our tests

We attempted to duplicate Herskowitz's claims. For this, we ordered one new song in iTunes. Once the song was downloaded, we attempted to re-purchase it. When doing so, we were alerted that song was already purchased and that we could download it again at no charge. Then, within iTunes, we checked to see what Apple charged us for our purchase, by going Account Information > Purchase History > See All. We were charged once for the song. From there, we performed the same tests in the Mac App Store and the App Store and received similar results. Finally, we attempted to find the song Herskowitz claims he purchased twice, "Whatya Want from Me" for $1.29. In the U.S. iTunes Store anyway, there is no song by that name at that price. However, there are four songs that are listed by similar names. Each sells for $0.99. It is entirely possible Herskowitz's charges are true and he was double-charged for the same song. However, we were unable to duplicate his results in three of Apple's four online stores. Herskowitz’s federal class action suit was filed in California and covers the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, and the Mac App Store. Have you ever been charged twice by Apple for the same product? What was the company's response?

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