Where Is The ACCC? Apple Back Creating A Monopoly By Nobbling Notebook Repairs

It appears that Apple is back up to their old tricks by nobbling their iMac notebooks when opened by none Apple approved third party repairers.

Apple has a history of repair scandals in Australia, including the device-disabling Error 53 saga, which saw the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission slug Apple $9 million for misleading consumers, and the recent iPhone throttling scandal, in which it was revealed that Apple was deliberately slowing down older phones, now they are back nobbling machines.

The Company that is obsessed with owning the money chain wrapped around their devices, to the extent that cables used to charge their iPhones are up to 90% more expensive than the same charging cable for an Android device has again moved to dramatically restrict the ability of customers to repair their devices themselves or get replacement parts from third-party repair shops.

A leaked memo sent to Apple stores and authorized service providers has revealed features that brick the devices unless Apple gets a share of the repair revenue.

The nobbling technology has been built into Apple’s new T2 chip which appears in the latest iMac Pro and 2018 models of the MacBook Pro.

Anyone opening an Apple notebook now requires Apple’s proprietary software which is only supplied to Genius workers in Apple stores and authorized repairers.

Failure to run Apple diagnostics after certain parts are replaced in T2-equipped Macs and notebooks “will result in an inoperative system and an incomplete repair,” the memo said.

iFixit CEO Kyle Weins, who works tirelessly to advocate for consumers to have the right to repair, their own Apple products has slammed the move.

According to the memo, the restrictions will apply to repairs that involve replacing a MacBook Pro’s display assembly, logic board, the keyboard and touchpad and the Touch ID board. On iMac Pros, it will kick in if the Logic Board or flash storage are replaced.

Despite the wording of the internal memo, the iFixit team was able to replace the display and logic board of a MacBook Pro without any issues.

The new built in “kill switch” will render devices useless unless taken to an Apple store.

If Apple chooses to, the latest repair requirement could mean customers have little choice about how they fix their devices or the price they will have to pay to get their devices fixed.

“Basically, it means Apple owns your device, not you, and could conceivably disable it remotely if they detect unauthorized repairs going on,” iFixit said.

“This would be a big step, even for them.”