Apple embargo in Sydney shops
Image: Apple is under attack after refusing to sell products to Australians with plans to visit Iran.
Apple is under attack after refusing to sell products to Australians planning to visit Iran.
Sydney student, Mahsa Javam has been unable to buy an iPhone in Apple’s Castle Hill store after she made it known that she would be using it while travelling to the embargoed country, Iran. Ms Javam, a 19-year-old ethnic affairs officer at UNSW said:
“It’s discrimination. It makes me quite angry that a corporation can come from overseas and apply their policies regardless of the [anti-discrimination] laws that are applicable here.”
Ms Javam visited multiple Sydney Apple stores and said the policy seemed to be implemented arbitrarily, with some employees offering to pretend she had not mentioned the holiday in order to let her make the purchase.
This comes after an incident where an Iranian-American claimed to have been refused an iPad after she was heard speaking Farsi in the store.
Due to US government embargoes, Apple policy restricts “exportation, reexportation, sale or supply, directly or indirectly” of its products to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Employees of any Apple subsidiary worldwide must also adhere to the restriction on selling the products if aware they will end up in one of these countries,
regardless of the local country’s embargo laws.
However, Ms Javam said in the stores she visited there were “mixed messages” over how the policy was to be implemented: “One staff
member was telling me: ‘Because you’re Iranian you can’t buy the product’. Another one was telling me that because I may take the
product [to Iran], I can’t buy it.”
“I was quite frustrated,” said Ms Javam. Apple insists that they do not racially target customers and stood behind an earlier statement issued to Gizmodo: “Our retail stores are proud to serve customers from around the world, of every ethnicity. Our store teams are multilingual and diversity is an important part of our culture. We don’t discriminate against anyone.”
Ms Javam has concerns over the wider implications of US policy setting precedence over Australian law. “This is an issue that affects any
dual citizen here in Australia,” she said. “[It] sets a bad precedent as well for corporations to bring in even harsher policies.
“[I have] no ties to the Iranian government. I am an Australian citizen. I was born and raised here.”
Ms Javam is currently discussing legal options against Apple under Australia’s anti-discrimination laws and is launching a campaign
to raise awareness of this issue.
By Ruby Prosser Scully
