Do we have a basis to file a class action lawsuit against AMD regarding the promises for future upgrade paths?
If the current AMD decision for Zen3 upgrade support holds,
there are are a lot of claims by AMD officials that would be considered misleading marketing.
In the UK there is a law called "The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008" with the following regulations:
(3) A commercial practice is unfair if—
(b)it materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer with regard to the product.
5.—(1) A commercial practice is a misleading action if it satisfies the conditions in either paragraph (2) or paragraph (3).
(2) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph—
(b)it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.
(3) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph if—
(ii)the commitment is firm and capable of being verified and is not aspirational
I omitted some non important things from the law, but it seems there is a base to act on the premise that AMD marketing officials made claims such as:
commitment to maintain and support socket AM4 through 2020 ... start with the hardware that meets their needs today, and upgrade to their growing performance demands tomorrow
These claims/commitments are verifiable and are available online on AMD blogs and press releases.
And it clearly distorts the economic behavior with regard to the product.
Many have bought into AMD for this sole reason, to have an upgrade path.
Upgrade path in this case is defined: switch CPU, or switch board each generation to be on the latest offering of the same SKU, without the need to switch both in one generation.
One upgrade path example:
B350+R1600 -> B350+R2600 -> B450+R2600 -> B450+R3600 -> it stops here
Because to follow it you need to switch both CPU and Motherboard in the same generation, since Zen3 is not supported on B450 and B550 does not support Zen2.
Why this definition of upgrade path matters? Because if you need to switch both in a single generation, the socket being AM4 of something else does not matter at all. It could had changed if you need to switch both. It could have been Socket AM4.5 with the same effect, so the claim AMD made to support the socket throughout 2020 is irrelevant.
What are your toughs? Is AMD guilty of misleading marketing, and should the owners of boards without upgrade path throughout 2020 get their money back?
