BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is facing legal action in the US and Canada for the three-day outage that saw millions of consumers and businesses unable to access emails, browse or use the instant messaging service.
The legal action comes despite apologies from RIM’s CIO Robin Bienfait and an offer to BlackBerry enterprise customers of one month’s free technical support in compensation for the outage.
For consumers, RIM said it will be offering a package of premium applications worth a total value of over $100 for free, including a selection of games.
RIM UK boss Stephen Bates recently admitted criticism over the failures was fair but claimed BlackBerry will not lose market share to Apple as a result – despite predictions that it is facing a mass exodus.
The US lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the federal court in Santa Ana, California, was brought on behalf of all US BlackBerry owners with an active service agreement at the time of the outage.
The lawsuit accuses RIM of breach of contract, negligence and unjust enrichment. It seeks damages, including cash compensation for service fees along with attorneys’ fees and legal expenses.
The Canadian lawsuit, also filed on Wednesday in Quebec Superior Court, was brought on behalf of all Canadian BlackBerry owners with an active service agreement.
The lawsuit says RIM must take full responsibility for the loss of service to BlackBerry users.
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