Apple settles iPhone throttling class action for up to $500 million

[Cal Jeffrey]

In a nutshell: If you are one of the iPhone owners who fell victim to Apple quietly throttling the processor to conserve your battery in 2017, you may be entitled to part of a class-action settlement. Don't start planning a significant upgrade to your phone though. Awards are expected to be around $25 per device.

Apple has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit for up to $500 million. The suit was filed in 2017 after the company admitted to throttling older iPhones. Models covered in the claim include iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE installed with iOS 10.2.1 or later. It also covers iPhone 7 and 7 Plus running iOS 11.2 or later before December 21, 2017.

Reuters reports the settlement, agreed to last Friday, proposes $25 per phone with a minimum total payment of $310 million, which can be adjusted up or down depending on how many claimants there end up being. The attorneys are looking for fees up to $93 million, plus $1.5 million to recoup expenses.

Apple agreed to settle the litigation to cut its losses, but throughout the case maintained, it did nothing wrong. Even still, after the throttling scandal became public, Cupertino offered to replace batteries on affected phones for $29 for a while. It had already been replacing them on iPhone 6s models for free. It usually charges $79 for the service.

The tech giant has not commented on the US settlement, but in February, Apple was fined $27 million by regulators in France over the fiasco. The French authority called the throttling a “misleading commercial action by omission.”

Apple responded to the penalty saying, “Our goal has always been to create secure products appreciated by our clients, and making iPhones that last as long as possible is an important part of that.” The company did not indicate whether it was going to contest the regulatory action.

Image credit: MichaelJayBerlin via Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84231-apple-settles-iphone-throttling-class-action-up-500.html

 

[ShagnWagn]

"The attorneys are looking for fees up to $93 million, plus $1.5 million to recoup expenses."

What are lawyers doing to "deserve" this much money? Do they have like thousands of lawyers employed for this one lawsuit? This is a huge chunk of money, which is taking from the people lawsuits are supposed to be for and protect.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Yeah, the great thing about society today is someone with no soul has quite the range of moneymaking opportunities, the top one being a Class Action Lawyer, which pays better than stealing candy from babies.

 

[Reehahs]

These companies should be fined until they admit wrong-doing.

 

[etempest]

Limiting the speed of the device, was not wrong in itself. When Apple lied about it, trying to avoid bad press that iOS on worn battery can causing issues did cross the line.

 

[umbala]

Companies like Apple keep pulling these stunts that cost consumers tens or hundreds of millions of dollars because they know that the fine will only be a fraction of the damage they caused. I mean, if you could rob a bank and steal a million dollars knowing that the only penalty will be a few hundred thousand dollars in fines, wouldn't YOU keep doing it?

 

[CharmsD]

This is too easy. I would fine Apple 500 billion million dollars payable in equal chunks to the first 9999 people who show up with an affected Iphone that's running too slow.

 

[Irata]

Companies like Apple keep pulling these stunts that cost consumers tens or hundreds of millions of dollars because they know that the fine will only be a fraction of the damage they caused. I mean, if you could rob a bank and steal a million dollars knowing that the only penalty will be a few hundred thousand dollars in fines, wouldn't YOU keep doing it?

Yup and that almost always seems to be the case, whether it's Apple, Intel or GM. VW being the exception here.

At first glance the fines sound high but if you look at either the damage done to consumers and/or the additional profits earned, your analogy fits perfectly.