Apple pays out over claims it deliberately slowed down iPhones

Apple Inc. , the multinational technology company, has initiated payments in response to a long-standing class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed over allegations that the company intentionally slowed down certain iPhone models in the United States. The complainants are set to receive a portion of a $500m settlement, which equates to approximately $92 per claim. In 2020, Apple consented to the settlement, maintaining that they had not committed any wrongdoing but were apprehensive about the escalating costs of ongoing litigation.

A parallel lawsuit is currently in progress in the United Kingdom, where the claimants are seeking £1. 6bn in compensation. The US lawsuit originated in December 2017, when Apple acknowledged that it had intentionally reduced the speed of some iPhones as they aged. The company justified this by stating that as batteries aged, their performance diminished, and the slowdown extended the phones' lifespan. However, Apple was accused of throttling the performance of certain iPhones without informing its customers, leading to public outrage. As a result, Apple offered a discounted battery replacement to rectify the issue, which subsequently led to the US legal action. Initially, it was estimated that each claimant might receive a mere $25, but the actual payout appears to be nearly four times that amount.

In the UK, Apple's attempt to block a similar mass action lawsuit was unsuccessful last November. The lawsuit, initiated by Justin Gutmann in June 2022, represents an estimated 24 million iPhone users. Apple has previously dismissed the lawsuit as baseless, asserting that they would never intentionally shorten the lifespan of any Apple product or degrade the user experience to encourage customer upgrades. However, unlike the US settlement, which only applied to devices in the iPhone 6 and 7 ranges, the UK lawsuit also seeks damages for those who owned iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X devices. Mr Gutmann expressed satisfaction with the US payments but cautioned that it does not influence the UK case. He stated that Apple is vehemently opposing the UK class action, which will next appear at the Court of Appeal, where a decision will be made on whether to halt the case. Mr Gutmann admitted that it was challenging to predict the timeline for the next steps but expressed hope that it would go to trial in late 2024 or early 2025.