Apple Agrees to Pay $500 Million in Settlement for Intentionally Slowing Down iPhones

On March 9, 2020

Apple has settled a lawsuit in which it was accused of intentionally slowing down its customers’ older iPhones to preserve the older batteries. When the customers complained in 2017 that Apple was intentionally slowing down their older phones as the new models were released to the public, Apple’s response was that the software on certain older iPhones tends to reduce the processing power when the battery is low, to prevent it from suddenly shutting down.

When the angry iPhone users didn’t believe Apple’s explanation, Apple tried to calm things down by reducing the cost of replacing old batteries down to $29. In some cases they even started to replace the batteries for free.

After a group of Apple customers filed a lawsuit a couple of years ago, Apple finally decided to settle the lawsuit this year for up to $500 million. Essentially, Apple said that it didn’t do anything wrong, but they will pay half a billion for something they didn’t do. Is that a nice gesture on their part, or admittance of guilt? I will let you be the judge.

According to Chicago Tribune, “Customers are expected to receive $25 per eligible device they owned, though they could receive more if fewer customers than expected file claims. The plaintiffs’ lawyers would also get a cut.Eligible devices include any iPhone 6, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later, or any iPhone 7 or 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later. Eligible customers had to live in the United States, and their devices had to run the given software before Dec. 21, 2017.”

Some iPhone users whose phones were intentionally slowed down by Apple said that they didn’t know that a battery replacement could have fixed their problem so they ended up purchasing a new iPhone. As this lawsuit has revealed, Apple decided not to share this information with its consumers. So each Apple customer who paid anywhere between $649 to $749 for a new iPhone, will be getting a $25 in settlement from Apple.

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