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Apple Sued Over Failing to Provide All Episodes of 'Breaking Bad' Season 5 for Season Pass Purchasers

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An Ohio man, Noam Lazebnik, has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for failing to provide iTunes users who purchased a "Season Pass" for Breaking Bad with the full season of 16 episodes, reports GigaOM.

Season 5 of the show was split into two eight-episode sections that aired in July of 2012 and August of 2013 and iTunes customers were asked to pay $14.99 to $22.99 (Standard and High Definition) for each half of the season. Lazebnik has levied a charge of false advertising against Apple for not providing consumers who purchased the first eight episodes with the second half of the season.

breaking_bad-fixed-800x272.png
When a consumer buys a ticket to a football game, he does not have to leave at halftime, When a consumer buys an opera ticket, he does not get kicked out at intermission. When a consumer buys a "Season Pass" to a full season of a television show on iTunes, that consumer should get access to the whole season.
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While Apple is charging $34.99 for a 16-episode run of a similar show, Suits, other television providers like Amazon and Microsoft have also split the two sections of Breaking Bad into two purchases given the year-long gap between airings.

Breaking Bad can currently be purchased on the iTunes Store, and tops both the "Top TV Episodes" and "Top TV Seasons" on the store's charts.




Article Link: Apple Sued Over Failing to Provide All Episodes of 'Breaking Bad' Season 5 for Season Pass Purchasers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/09/08/apple-sued-over-failing-to-provide-all-episodes-of-breaking-bad-season-5-for-season-pass-purchasers/
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cfischer83

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2010
6
0
I agree. I bought "season 5" of breaking bad last year knowing that there would be 8 more episodes, only to find that it's been split into "season 5" and "the final season".... Even though season 5 IS the final season. There was no disclaimer anywhere that I was only buying half a season (I checked thoroughly).
 
Casiotone

Casiotone

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2008
825
111
Didn't Apple also do this with Futurama? The season numbers on iTunes are out of sync with the official numbers.
 
u6crash

u6crash

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2007
70
8
DeKalb, IL
I was one of the people burned by this. I thought I did appropriate research when I bought my season pass and really thought I was getting the whole thing. Apparently the fine print said otherwise. I complained to iTunes and got some free credits. I realize the same thing happened with Amazon and Microsoft, but I was so turned off by it that I ended up buying the second half from Amazon. The Walking Dead had a similar split season one year and it wasn't an issue (and also wasn't so expensive per episode).
 
MattJessop

MattJessop

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2007
215
43
Manchester, UK
Fully agree, that was very misleading and if it had been me I'd be pretty damn hacked off. But this has nothing to do with Apple, they just provide the store. It's like me going and suing HMV because Universal split Battlestar Galactica's final season into 2 in the UK to make quick money. Or the whole Family Guy/American Dad seasons in the UK. People will vote with their wallets, but at the end of the day it's wrong to mislead like this.
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
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I remember last year it was called a 'mid-season break.' I wondered how long it would last and every week for about a month I was waiting for my iTunes email to show up with a new episode.

Eventually, I learned they were due back this summer. I never thought of the pricing and advertising aspect of my purchase until now.

Its been a very long 'mid-season break.'
 
cmChimera

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,273
3,762
This is AMC's fault and not Apple's, but I do agree that it was wrong of AMC to do this.
 
S

swingerofbirch

macrumors 68040
Oct 24, 2003
3,643
4,446
The Amalgamated States of Central North America
Apple did this with South Park Season 10 back in 2006, too. When I purchased the Season Pass it was for "South Park Season 10." After 7 episodes, they changed the marketing and called what I had paid for "Season 10A." They then sold a "Season 10B" separately once new episodes came out, which I never received the episodes of. I wrote to them but could never get a refund or the second half of the season. I just checked and it's now back to just "Season 10."
 
E

ElectronGuru

macrumors 68000
Sep 5, 2013
1,656
489
Oregon, USA
The worse thing a well meaning company can do is show people what they can't have. The second worst thing is creating expectations (intentionally or not) and then not delivering.

Seasons got their name because that's how they were laid out. All this stretching and rearranging is creating confusion. It's obviously not apples fault but they're the guys who took the payment.
 
mrat93

mrat93

macrumors 68020
Dec 30, 2006
2,256
2,960
Same problem happened several years ago with season 10 of South Park. Nobody sued, nothing came of it.
 
ThunderSkunk

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,823
4,052
Milwaukee Area
What suffering this man has endured... The anguish! Somebody should get sued.

Every time a leaf falls from a tree, someone ought to be forced at gunpoint to surrender their lifes savings.

It's the American way.
 
Eraserhead

Eraserhead

macrumors G4
Nov 3, 2005
10,434
12,250
UK
dannyyankou said:
But you'd have to have some common sense to see that they wouldn't sell an entire season for less than a $1 per episode.
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So? It seems pretty straightforward that this guy is right.

I have no idea why he wasn't given a refund before getting anywhere close to court though.

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ThunderSkunk said:
What suffering this man has endured... The anguish! Somebody should get sued.
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Why shouldn't he sue for (material) breech of contract?
 
G

Gus Van Der Mee

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2013
113
0
ElectronGuru said:
The worse thing a well meaning company can do is show people what they can't have. The second worst thing is creating expectations (intentionally or not) and then not delivering.

Seasons got their name because that's how they were laid out. All this stretching and rearranging is creating confusion. It's obviously not apples fault but they're the guys who took the payment.
Click to expand...

You can't put it all on just Apple or AMC. Both are at foult here. AMC for splitting the season without any heads up and proper information about it and Apple for not asking AMC why.


The store is still Apple's and that doesn't mean that it all is left for content providers without any curation.
 
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