Cashiers and responsibility for export laws enforcement

[KingsGambit]

I'm sure most of you have heard the story about the girl in Georgia who, although she is an American citizen, wasn't allowed to buy an iPad and an iPhone because the store heard her speaking Farsi and the store said the US has an embargo against Iran. Apple officially told NPR that they had "no comment" on the story, which makes me think this is probably a real policy - if it wasn't, they would be bending over backward to apologize publicly, because this isn't exactly positive publicity. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...tells-iranians

It's obviously completely legal to sell to somebody of Iranian descent who lives in the US, but is Apple concerned that somebody's going to try to skirt the rules? I don't think they should be - it's not their responsibility what somebody does with merchandise they buy from them and they can't be reasonably responsible for knowing this. Now, what would be really interesting would be if they refused to sell to anybody speaking Spanish in the store due to the US's embargo on Cuba.

[Darth Executor]

apple lol

[Ansgar Seraph]

I'm sure most of you have heard the story about the girl in Georgia who, although she is an American citizen, wasn't allowed to buy an iPad and an iPhone because the store heard her speaking Farsi and the store said the US has an embargo against Iran. Apple officially told NPR that they had "no comment" on the story, which makes me think this is probably a real policy - if it wasn't, they would be bending over backward to apologize publicly, because this isn't exactly positive publicity. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...tells-iranians

It's obviously completely legal to sell to somebody of Iranian descent who lives in the US, but is Apple concerned that somebody's going to try to skirt the rules? I don't think they should be - it's not their responsibility what somebody does with merchandise they buy from them and they can't be reasonably responsible for knowing this. Now, what would be really interesting would be if they refused to sell to anybody speaking Spanish in the store due to the US's embargo on Cuba.

My guess would be that Apple's attorneys told the customer relations department not to comment on the story because there exists the possibility of a discrimination lawsuit. I'm sure that Apple has no official policy against selling products to U.S. citizens of foreign descent.

—Sam

[KingsGambit]

My guess would be that Apple's attorneys told the customer relations department not to comment on the story because there exists the possibility of a discrimination lawsuit. I'm sure that Apple has no official policy against selling products to U.S. citizens of foreign descent.

—Sam

That's a good point.

The lady in the story could have gotten such a better deal with anything other than Apple anyway...

[Ansgar Seraph]

Indeed. Google ought to send her a Nexus tablet prototype.

[Kristian Joense]

From what I heard she *did* say that they purpose of the purchase was as a gift to her cousin in Iran. That would violate export restrictions.

[KingsGambit]

From what I heard she *did* say that they purpose of the purchase was as a gift to her cousin in Iran. That would violate export restrictions.

Yes, this was not initially reported, but does appear to be the case now. This could provide a reasonable explanation for Apple's silence.