European Union threatens to take iPhone off the market

The European Union’s consumer czar Meglena Kuneva has warned that iPhones would be taken off the market if national authorities find manufacturing faults lie behind mystery screen explosions.

So far they have received complaints from France, Germany and the UK about mysteriously combusting or exploding iPhones. Apple has so far called these reports “isolated incidents” and blames overheating batteries or faulty use by device owners.

That hasn’t stopped Kuneva from taking a strong stand in the matter:

“I don’t need (Apple)’s permission to stop goods entering the market,” told reporters in Brussels. “If goods are dangerous, then we will order a recall. We are checking with labs to see if there is a problem with the phone, with their batteries or if there has been misuse of the device. We need to have 100 percent certainty from one member state that these goods are dangerous.

But if I receive from the French authorities information that they are dangerous, I will act in the interests of the consumer. I will ask my network for a recall of the product as we did with the Italian (Senseo) coffee machines.”

Apple expects to sell 23 million iPhones this year so any threat to that would seem a very serious matter. Apprently investors aren’t too worried yet as the news isn’t impacting the price of Apple’s stock, yet.