A Briton has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging battery throttling of older iPhones. The legal claim by consumer rights advocate Justin Gutmann is worth £750 million ($927 million). Gutmann is seeking reimbursement for the over 25 million affected iPhone users in the United Kingdom. He claims Apple took a secret decision to slow down older iPhones in 2017.
Justin Gutmann stated that Apple made older iPhones to be slower in coping with software updates. An undocumented battery management update released in January 2017 led to the slow performance of older iPhones. This was to prevent the devices from shutting down without warning. Apple did not provide users with an option of disabling the battery management setting. In addition, the company did not warn users that their phones were being deliberately throttled. Gutmann alleged that the throttling was meant to mask the fact that the older iPhone batteries couldn’t cope with the new update demands.
Gutmann launched the claim against Apple at the Competition Appeals Tribunal. The claim, if successful, will cover the 25 million older iPhones in the UK that were affected. The affected phones included the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, and SE. Others were the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and the iPhone X. Gutmann said Apple ought to have initiated a battery replacement program or admit that the update was unsuitable for older devices. Rather, the company allowed users to install the update knowing that it will worsen their device’s performance.
Gutmann says Apple was unethical in its approach to the issue as it ought to have come out clean to its customers. The concealment meant that some users experienced significant slowdowns in their devices. He says he was pursuing the case on behalf of millions of iPhone users across the UK. He also hopes that the case will spur dominant companies to review their business models and desist from such unwholesome conduct.
It was after a year that Apple had acknowledged the throttling issues. It claimed that the update was meant to address the problem of older phones shutting down. It claims it never set out to intentionally shorten the life of the affected phones. Apple continues to grapple with a litany of lawsuits challenging various aspects of its operations. This new lawsuit adds to the list. If successful, older iPhone users in the UK could get up to $30 from Apple.
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