Apple Offers iPad 3 Refund Amid Court Fine

Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) is offering to refund iPad customers in Australia after suffering two, unrelated, legal defeats.

The tech company was fined £1.46m by an Australian court over the advertising of its latest tablet, which claimed it was compatible with a 4G mobile data network when it was not.

The case was brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in March, after the computer and gadgets-maker rolled out the first wave of new iPads in the Australian market.

The court agreed with the watchdog that Apple had implied "that an iPad with WiFi + 4G could connect directly to the Telstra LTE mobile data network in Australia, which it could not do".

Apple has already promised to email all buyers of its iPad 3 in Australia to offer them a refund and agreed to post warnings that its new iPad "is not compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks and WiMAX networks".

The news emerged after a Dutch court ordered Apple to pay damages to Samsung over a patent violation in the Netherlands.

The two rivals have been suing each other in about a dozen countries for the last few years as they compete globally for consumers in the fast-growing markets for smart phones and tablet computers.

A court in The Hague ruled Apple had violated a Samsung patent used in some of Apple's phones and tablets to connect to the Internet, and said damages should be based on iPhone and iPad sales in the Netherlands.

Samsung added: "We will be seeking damages. The amount...will be determined by the court."

The company said the ruling relates only to the Netherlands and does not have any binding effect for future rulings in other countries.

Apple has a complex relationship with Samsung.

While Samsung's smartphones and tablets run on Android and compete with Apple's products, Samsung is also a key components supplier to Apple.