Apple
Apple designs and sells consumer electronics, software, and digital services including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and the App Store.
Policies decoded for Apple
Legal & Contractual Snapshot
The same eight rows are filled in for every company on this site, so you can compare across vendors. "Not specified" means the source documents are silent on that topic.
- Governing law
- California state law, without regard to conflict-of-laws provisions.What this means: Which state or country's law is used to interpret the agreement. Different jurisdictions have different consumer protections; this row tells you which set applies if there's a dispute.
- Dispute venue
- State or federal courts in Santa Clara County, California. EU/EEA and UK consumers may sue in their country of residence.What this means: Where you'd have to file if you ever needed to take the company to court. Filing in a state you don't live in usually means traveling or hiring a lawyer there, which can make small disputes impractical to pursue.
- Jury trial
- Not addressed.What this means: Whether you can ask a jury (rather than a single judge) to decide a case against the company. Waiving the right means a judge decides alone. Companies generally prefer judge-only trials because judges follow contracts more strictly than juries do.
- Arbitration / class action
- Not required. No class action waiver in the main Apple terms. Individual Apple services (App Store, Apple Music, iPhone Upgrade Program) may have their own dispute terms.What this means: Arbitration is a private dispute process outside the courts, decided by a paid arbitrator whose ruling is binding and hard to appeal. Class actions let many people with the same complaint file one lawsuit together. Waiving class actions means each person has to file individually, which usually isn't worth the cost for small dollar amounts.
- Liability cap
- No dollar cap stated for most claims. The Apple.com website terms cap liability at the greater of six months of fees paid or $100.What this means: The maximum amount the company will pay you if they're found at fault. "As is, as available" is contract language meaning the company makes no promises about whether the product or service will work as expected, which makes recovering anything from them very hard in practice.
- Account termination
- Apple may terminate your account at any time for a terms violation. No notice required.What this means: The conditions under which the company can end your account or service. What varies between companies: whether they need a reason to terminate, whether they have to give you notice, and whether you get any money back.
- Privacy & data use
- Apple collects account, transaction, and device data. Limited third-party sharing. Full details at apple.com/legal/privacy.What this means: What personal information the company collects, what they use it for, and whether they share or sell it. This is a high-level summary; the company's full privacy policy has the legal details.
- Term modification
- Apple may change its terms at any time. Continued use after a change counts as acceptance.What this means: How the company can change the agreement on you over time. "Continued use means acceptance" is the standard pattern: the company posts a new version, and if you keep using the service, you've legally agreed to the new terms whether you read them or not.
Watch Out For
- Products can only be returned in the country where purchased. If you bought a device abroad, you cannot return it to a US Apple Store.