According to the BBC, Apple has started paying settlement settlements related to claims that it purposefully slowed down some iPhone models in the US as part of an ongoing settlement to a protracted class action lawsuit.
Complainants will get a percentage of the $500 million (£394 million) settlement, or around $92 per claim, as part of the agreement signed in 2020.
Even though Apple insisted throughout the settlement deal that it had done nothing illegal, the business voiced worries about the rising expenses of protracted legal action.
Beginning in December 2017, the US action stemmed from Apple’s acknowledgement that it purposefully reduced the speed of certain iPhone models as their batteries grew older.
The justification offered was that this action was taken to counteract the deterioration of battery performance in order to extend the devices’ lifespan.
Apple was criticized for allegedly not telling users about the planned performance slowdown, which caused a commotion.
As a result, Apple addressed the problem by providing cheaper battery replacements, which ultimately led to the filing of the class action complaint.
The settlement’s real payout has increased to about four times the initial estimate of $25 per individual, meaning that each claimant might get almost $92.
Concurrently, a similar lawsuit involving £1.6 billion in damages is pending in the UK. In November, the UK court permitted a mass action lawsuit to proceed, despite Apple’s best efforts to stop it.
The UK case, which was started by Justin Gutmann in June 2022, is thought to represent 24 million iPhone users. It includes the iPhone 6 and 7 series covered by the US settlement in addition to a wider range of devices, like as the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X.
Reiterating its position on the subject, Apple called the UK case “baseless” and emphasized that it would never purposefully shorten a product’s lifespan or degrade user experience in order to encourage consumer upgrades.
