Apple is facing a class action lawsuit in the UK due to the 2017 “speed reduction” incident. According to Reuters, the Competition Appeal Tribunal recently ruled that the lawsuit can continue.
The lawsuit, filed in June 2022 by consumer advocate Justin Gutman, initially sought compensation from Apple totaling £750 million for up to 25 million iPhone owners in the UK affected by the incident. Since then, the amount of this lawsuit has increased to 1.6 billion pounds plus interest.
Gutmann’s lawyers argued that Apple concealed battery problems in certain phone models and “surreptitiously” installed a power management tool that limited performance.
However, Apple says the lawsuit is “baseless” and strongly denies that iPhone batteries are defective except for a handful of iPhone 6s models, for which it also offers free battery replacements.
Gutman’s lawsuit covers iPhone 6 through iPhone X, and while the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled it could proceed, it also cited a “lack of clarity and specificity” that needed to be resolved before a formal hearing.
Apple rolled out the iOS 10.2.1 system update in 2017, which included a performance-reducing power management feature to prevent devices with aging batteries from trying to draw peak power during use that the battery couldn’t provide. Apple says it introduced the feature to help extend the life of its devices while reducing unexpected shutdowns, but the company has been criticized for not disclosing what it does and why, with some suggesting it’s trying to cover up the device. Flawed.
Apple later apologized for not better explaining the changes it made and why, and launched a low-price battery replacement program that lasted for several years. Apple in 2020 agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit in the United States over the incident, and the company also faces similar lawsuits in a number of other countries.
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