Apple has agreed to settle in litigation charges for deliberately and quietly slowing down older iPhones when new models are launched.
First posted by Reuters, the company agreed to pay an amount of up to $500 million — which equates to $25 per impacted iPhone — to settle the lawsuit after agreeing to a preliminary hearing on Friday in which it denied any wrongdoing. The decision to settle was to avoid lengthy court proceedings.
The settlement calls for Apple to pay users whose phones were impacted by new policies introduced in iOS 10.2.1 operating system which led users to think that their devices were reaching “end of life” requiring a battery replacement or a new device altogether.
$25 per iPhone puts a minimum total payout number at $310 million and could reach up to $500 Million depending on the number of eligible iPhones. Phone models covered in the settlement include iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or iPhone SE
Apple rolled out iOS 10.2.1 in February 2017 which featured new performance throttling behavior. The feature reduced peak performance levels for the aforementioned iPhones because their batteries were already old enough and could not maintain continuous peak performance. This, in Apple’s part, was to prevent random unexpected shutdown.
Inadequate communication to customers on the new feature led users to believe their phones needed to be replaced, Apple rolled this out as part of iOS 10.2.1 in February 2017, without appropriately communicating the change to customers. Customers had to discover on their own that a battery replacement would fix the issue.
The discovery of throttling mechanisms became a scandal as customers learned on their own about what iOS was doing to their phones. In December 2017, Apple had to officially apologize and promised changes.
The company discounted battery replacements to $29 across 2018 and also brought new Battery settings screens in iOS to show the current health of the battery inside the iPhone. Apple also included a toggle to disable the throttling behavior feature while warning against the risk of unexpected shutdowns.
Apple attributed the problems mainly to temperature changes, high usage, and other issues, and said its engineers worked quickly and successfully to address them. Analysts sometimes refer to the slowing of iPhones as “throttling.”
Apple as a huge mobile phone manufacturer has been a target for many lawsuits.
in march of 2012, 83-year-old Evelyn Paswall, claimed that she broke her nose when she ran face-first into the glass exterior wall of one of Apple’s stores, thinking the wall was actually a door.
“Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd,” Paswell’s attorney Derek T. Smith said, according to the New York Post. “But on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people.”
Paswell sued Apple for $1 million, claiming the company was “negligent … in allowing a clear, see-through glass wall and/or door to exist without proper warning,” CBS New York reported in March.
Back in February of 2012, China-based company Proview Electronics sued Apple for $1.6 billion, claiming the company infringed its trademark for the word iPad.
Apple bought the trademark from the company but that agreement didn’t come with permission to use the word in China, according to the lawsuit.
Apple ultimately settled with Proview for $60 million, The Los Angeles Times reported in July.
