Class Claims Apple Gave Short Weight on 'Breaking Bad'

This one sounded like it may hit close to home for some on here. It seems Apple played games here?

SAN JOSE (CN) - Apple deceived iTune customers by selling a "Season Pass" for the final season of "Breaking Bad," then breaking the season in two and charging a second time, consumers claim in a federal class action.

Lead plaintiff Noam Lazebnik accuses Apple of deceptive and unfair trade for the way it sold "Breaking Bad" on iTunes.

Had anyone here gotten the show by iTunes? It isn't a service I have used in the past so I'm not real familiar with it. Particularly for TV.

This season's episodes are listed as "Season 5, Episode 9 (509), Season 5, Episode 10 (510), etc.," Lazebnik says in the complaint.

When Season 5 became available on iTunes, customers were offered a "Season Pass" for $21.99 for high definition and $13.99 for standard definition. In exchange, "they were promised: '[t]his Season Pass includes all current and future episodes of Breaking Bad, Season 5,'" Lazebnik says in the complaint.

Sounds pretty clear to me. Assuming that's what it said, it's very clear as to the meaning. At least, it's sure clear how I would have interpreted the meaning for what was being paid for. Hmmm....

But when the second half of the season became available on iTunes in early August this year, customers with a season pass had to pay another $22.99 or $14.99 to get them, Lazebnik says.

Source: Courthouse News

That is not what I would have expected, after paying the first fee, as described.

It's a class action, so does this touch anyone on here? I hadn't personally seen the show but it sounds very popular. That's pretty rough for Apple to do. It seems like nothing is quite what it seems or how it's presented.

At least, that is how the case filing reads. I imagine this will make wider news as it gets real traction into the court process.

reply to post by wrabbit2000


Seems like pretty crappy business practice to me. When you detect the error, you fix it for free.

Then again, Apple conspired with publishers to raise the price of electronic books and sought to punish Amazon for charging too little. Hard not to call Apple a monopoly.

I bet somewhere in the small print there were those weasel words "We reserve the right..."

reply to post by VoidHawk


Human Cent-i-pad

"We still can't get it to read!"

I can sort of understand why Apple did this (as much as I hate Apple)

This last season of Breaking Bad (season 5) is split up into two blocks of 6 episodes each. Breaking Bad fans were pissed because the makers of BB put such a huge gap between the first six episodes and the last six episodes, such a large gap that it's basically two separate seasons. Evidently the people working on breaking bad even call the last season "Season 5 A" for the first six and "Season 5 B" for the second six.

So it kind of makes sense for Apple to break up the sale of the season into two separate packages, but they went about it totally the wrong way. They should have made it absolutely clear at the beginning that the purchase was ONLY for the first six episodes. And they shouldn't have charged nearly as much as they did, six episodes is hardly enough material to warrant that full price.

I'm sure they will have to provide the last six episodes free of charge. Their wording says all remaining episodes of season 5, and technically speaking the first 6 and second 6 are all still season 5. Even with the large break between airing of the episodes, on everything official they are both season 5.

I seriously suspect Apple was purposefully trying to trick people by doing this, and was hoping nobody would get too worked up over it. They probably figured a few people would complain and press the point, but not enough to throw off the profit from double charging for a single season. They didn't anticipate how rabid Breaking Bad fans are, try to rip off BB fans and see what happens, B1TCH! (Jessie Pinkman catchphrase for those that don't watch the show)

reply to post by James1982


Thanks for your addition to the info here. For people like me who haven't watched the show much, if at all, the info about how they handled the season with a split is interesting and different. Like you say, it doesn't change much for looking at Apple's handling here, but it does give some ....reason to things, even if it's a bad one. It makes a little sense...in an odd way. So there was something specifically different about this show. Hmm..

reply to post by James1982


Apple has no reason to do this. Breaking one season into two halves like this is a standard cable channel practice. But when the DVD release comes out you get the full season. Cable companies operate like this with their original programming to take advantage of the broadcast networks hiatus. But ultimately I don't blame Apple, they have always been one of the most disreputable anything for a buck money grubbing companies out there. I blame the people that willingly accept their crap behavior and nuisance lawsuits.

reply to post by James1982


Actually, it was two half seasons of 8 episodes each. So, a total of 16 episodes for the entire final season.