Key Points
- Apple Store employees have been accused of enrolling customers in automatically renewing subscription trials without adequately obtaining their consent.
- Electronics technician and consumer rights advocate Louis Rossmann highlighted the allegations in a series of YouTube videos.
- Apple reportedly removed a retail performance metric that encouraged employees to attach subscription services to device purchases; the company also issued an internal reminder directing employees to obtain customer consent before activating subscriptions and performing certain other services.
Apple has reportedly eliminated a retail sales performance metric and reminded employees about customer consent following allegations that some Apple Store workers enrolled customers in automatically renewing subscription trials without their knowledge.
The allegations were raised by electronics technician and consumer rights advocate Louis Rossmann, who published several YouTube videos describing complaints from individuals familiar with Apple’s retail operations.
According to a report by MacRumors, some Apple Store employees allegedly activated free trials for services such as Apple One without adequately informing customers that the subscriptions would automatically renew and result in charges after the promotional period.
The reported practice involved Apple’s “Connect and Personalize” system, which allows retail employees to access certain customer account information after a shopper scans a QR code. That system can display a customer’s existing Apple devices, subscriptions and available promotional offers; after learning of a customer’s subscription enrollment status, employees can then activate eligible subscription trials using payment information already associated with the customer’s Apple Account. The process includes options to accept or decline offers, but some employees allegedly selected the acceptance option themselves without obtaining informed consent, while other employees reportedly presented subscriptions as complimentary gifts or rushed customers through the enrollment process without fully explaining the terms.
The allegations emerged amid concerns about an internal performance metric known as the “services attach rate,” which reportedly encouraged some retail employees to enroll at least 40 percent of device purchasers in one or more subscription services. MacRumors reported that Apple removed the metric from employee performance tracking shortly after Rossmann published his videos, with the company claiming the reason for the removal was because subscriptions were a less-relevant part of the shopping experience during the holiday season, when many customers purchase Apple devices as gifts for others..
Following the report, Apple also distributed an internal memorandum reminding retail employees about the importance of obtaining customer consent and protecting privacy. The guidance covered subscription activations, the Connect and Personalize system, Apple Upgrade enrollments and Genius Bar service authorizations.
It remains unclear whether the metric’s removal and employee guidance were responses to the allegations or previously planned changes associated with Apple’s holiday retail operations.
Like other companies, Apple has worked to diversify itself from hardware sales by marketing its various subscription offerings to customers, which allows the company to generate recurring income from monthly and annual charges off customers who already purchase Apple phones, tablets, computers, wearables and accessories.
The company’s various subscriptions include Apple One, Apple TV, Apple Music, cloud storage service iCloud, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness and Apple News. Apple sells its subscriptions through bundled offerings that cost between $22 per month and $40 per month, with the cost largely based on whether Apple customers want access to fringe streaming services and want the privilege of sharing those services with their immediate family members.
During Apple’s most-recent financial quarter, the company earned $114.5 billion in revenue over a three-month period that ended September 30, of which nearly $31.6 billion was associated with subscription-based products.
Apple sends email notifications when subscription trials are activated, but customers who overlook those messages could subsequently incur charges when promotional periods expire. Customers can review active subscriptions and promotional trials through the Subscriptions section of their Apple Account settings. They can also dispute eligible charges through Apple’s online refund system.
