Apple Sued by Norfolk County Council

Norfolk County Council alleges Apple has misled investors about its iPhone sales.

13:31 10 November 2020

Norfolk County Council is taking Apple to court over claims that the iPhone maker has misled investors about its iPhone sales. The council runs a £3.8nbn Norfolk Pension Fund which currently holds an undisclosed amount of Apple shares.  

 

The local authority is accusing the world's most valuable company of concealing weak demand for iPhones before it put out a profit warning in January 2019. Court documents cite Apple boss Tim Cook making "false and misleading" statements in 2018 when he said the company was not facing sales pressure in China but had to reduce the production of the new iPhone XR due to lower than expected demand. It was followed by the technology boss's admission in January 2019 that the company will miss its profit forecast by about £6billion.

 

A council spokesperson said: “We are a part of the class action against Apple to do with pension involvement and cannot comment further because there is live litigation.”

 

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said on November 4 that a UK pension fund could sue over Mr Cook's comment made in November 2018 during an analyst call. Apple has since responded that there was no proof that it misled investors.