French official to talk iPhone troubles with Apple

An Apple iPhone 3GS sits on a cradle at a Singtel showroom ahead of the phone launch this evening in Singapore July 10, 2009.

PARIS (Reuters) - A senior executive from Apple Inc will meet France's consumer affairs minister on Friday to discuss a number of incidents in which screens on some of its popular iPhones were reported to have shattered for no obvious reason.

French newspapers have reported several cases in which consumers described problems with the popular devices, which have sold by the million and helped Apple defy the global recession.

In one case, a teenager said he was slightly injured when his iPhone made a hissing noise and shattered. He said his complaints to the Apple customer service staff had been dismissed.

Consumer affairs minister Herve Novelli will meet the commercial director of Apple France to discuss the problems after the DGCCRF, the consumer affairs and antifraud directorate, sought an explanation of the incident.

"Herve Novelli will stress the responsibility held by companies regarding general security requirements when they sell equipment to consumers," the minister's office said.

The European Commission in Brussels said earlier this month that Apple was investigating media reports that one or more of the company's iPhones had exploded in Europe.

Apple has said it was aware of the media reports and was studying them.

(Reporting by Tamora Vidaillet; Editing by James Mackenzie)