Counterfeit, genuine, inauthentic, refurbished? Which is it? There's something missing from this story, and if found, would probably explain why exactly Apple thought they had a case.
Basically, Apple is claiming that the parts are counterfeit. But it’s just recycled Apple parts being reused.
If I take two car doors that are both damaged, and make one Good door from them, and sell that door at a discount, that doesn’t make my reassembled door a counterfeit.
In the automotive world, those parts are sold as OEM replacement parts. They are just sold cheaper and labeled as refurbished, repaired, or used.
Saying that a replacement part is counterfeit because Apple didn’t refurbish it and sell it for a higher price is ridiculous. It is still an Apple part, and legally is the same thing. It is an Apple part that was repaired by someone other than Apple. And as long as you don’t claim it was repaired by Apple, there isn’t a legal reason to complain.
Even if Apple’s original stampings remain, there is nothing wrong with that.
If your iMac breaks and you repair it with parts salvaged from another dead iMac, are you supposed to scrape off or permanently cover every Apple logo and stamping both inside and outside??? Or is that computer still an Apple iMac?
Component parts are not much different. If an Apple part dies because of faulty capacitors, and I repair said part with functioning capacitors I still haven’t broken any laws.
Even if I later sell that board with the original Apple stampings left in place.
I can even sell it as an Apple board.
I just cannot say that Apple performed the repairs.
This is the test that Apple will eventually find themselves losing. That’s why they are using electronic anti tampering methods to block repairs.
Ultimately it comes down to them wanting to force the consumer to overpay for any repairs. And in reality, it’s also doing so at the cost of generating more ewaste from parts that will have to be trashed because Apple won’t let you reuse them because of anti tampering mechanisms.
