Nothing has changed - Chinese lawyer sues iPhone seller

Customers try out iPhone 6s smartphones at an Apple store in Xining city, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Sept 25, 2015. [Photo/IC]

BEIJING - A Chinese lawyer is suing an iPhone seller for what he believes to be misleading statements in the company's advertising for the new iPhone 6s products.

Lawyer He Ganlin from Guangzhou bought a 128 gigabyte iPhone 6s for 6,858 yuan ($1076) from the dealer, the Guangdong branch of China Mobile, after seeing an advertisement declaring that, "The only thing that's changed is everything."

Online media outlet "The Paper" reported that after using his new gadget, He found that "everything had not changed" as the advertisement claimed. Compared with the iPhone 6, the 6s is almost identical in its appearance, nor has it changed much in functionality, He said.

The lawyer also argues that the words "only" and "everything" contravene China's new Advertising Law, which forbids definitive or absolute terms like "best", "perfect" and "national level".

The lawyer is demanding compensation of 20,000 yuan, three times the price of the phone, and according to the report, a court in Guangzhou has accepted the case.

The defendant is yet to respond.

China is Apple's most successful market. During this year's Singles' Day online shopping spree earlier this week, Chinese customers bought more than three million smart-phones on Alibaba's Tmall platform.