iPhone users file for class action suit

More than 23,000 iPhone users have registered with a law firm to join a privacy battle against Apple over the smartphone’s location-tracking function, the law firm said Monday.

The participants in the suit paid 16,900 won in litigation fees for which they will receive 1 million won each if they win the case.

Kim Hyeong-seok, 36, the lawyer in charge of the case, receives 20 percent of the compensation for winning the suit. This means out of 1 million won awarded to each participant, 200,000 won goes to Kim.

Even if he loses, the lawyer still receives 9,000 won from each participant as a fee for arguing the case. If 100,000 people participate in the collective lawsuit, 20 billion won goes to the lawyer if he wins; if he loses, he still receives 900 million won.

Mindful of some criticism against the snowballing fees, Miraelaw, the law firm to which Kim belongs, told reporters Monday that it will donate part of the fee income to promote the public good.

“We are going to use part of the income for the public good regardless of the result of the suit,” said Lee Jae-choul, a lawyer from the firm, at a briefing. “This lawsuit is aimed to sound a warning to Apple for its illegal location tracking.”

However, experts worry that the lawsuit could simply end up becoming a lucrative business for the lawyer and not the participants. “I just hope people involved in this law suit know the merits of this case,” said Jasper Kim, a professor of law at Ewha Womans University. “They’re paying the money up front but there’s no guarantee they will win.”

“I don’t disagree with the claims that this matter could only be a lucrative business for the lawyer,” said Prof. Kim.

“The lawyer in charge of this case has nothing to lose. It could draw him more business. It seems very strategic in a way. Even if he loses, he’s become so popular he’ll receive a lot of cases from now on.”

Some participants say getting things right is more important than receiving compensation money.

“Even if I do lose, if Apple becomes stricter in terms of privacy regulations and restricts location data services, then I’ll be satisfied with paying 16,900 won for getting that accomplished,” said a university student.

If you walk around Gangnam everyone and their mother has an iphone 4. It is the social statues to have an iphone. However, Koreans are up to their eyeballs in debt trying to keep up with the Kim's (Jones's) Add to this the sue happy culture and the previous lawyer winning against Apple 23,000 other people get the same idea. I can see Apple leaving this market as fast as they arrived. Shame...