Class-action claim portal for litigants in Apple's 'throttle gate' is now live

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: In late 2017, Apple decided it would be a good idea to secretly implement software within the iPhone operating system that throttled performance on phones with degrading batteries to make them last longer. Unfortunately, not being forthright with the changes to iOS, Apple is paying the price to users in the form of a class-action settlement.

In March, we reported that Apple had settled a class-action lawsuit for $500 million over its iPhone throttling debacle. The terms of the agreement allow customers to claim up to $25 compensation per eligible device. Litigators have finally set up a claims portal for people to apply for their portion of the settlement.

To qualify, users must currently or previously owned an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, or an iPhone SE running iOS 10.2.1 or later. The earlier iPhone 7 and 7 Plus running iOS 11.2 or later are also eligible. These devices have to have been purchased and owned before December 21, 2017, and experienced poor performance.

Eligible users can receive up to $25 per device, but that compensation comes from the $500 million settlement pool. Once exceeded, payouts will be adjusted down to a total amount equal to the pool. Therefore, the payments could be less if there are more than 20 million claims.

Respondents have until October 6, 2020, to submit a request. Settlements will then be processed, and payments will commence sometime after December 4, 2020. Once you submit your claim or if you take no action, you waive your right to proceed with further legal proceedings. Therefore, if you are planning on suing Apple over this matter personally, you will want to exclude yourself from this settlement, which is a separate process.

If you need it, an FAQ page has been posted to answer any furhter questions regarding this lawsuit.

Image credit: Battery Notification by Poravute Siriphiroon, Battery Replacement by boyhey

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85981-class-action-claim-portal-litigants-apple-throttle-gate.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Frankly, they should have penalized Apple to the tune of all their gross profits for the next 10 years. That's harsh, but no harsher than a company that actively steals from their customers through deception and fraud.

 

[torchyear]

Hmm. The battery on my iPhone was on its way out anyway, and I got a reasonably priced replacement out of this debacle (without the usual Genius Bar palaver about how they don't do battery replacements unless you happen to say the correct secret keywords). 'Up to' $25 compensation for participating in this is neither here nor there in practical terms. The only party that gets any real gains from these kind of class actions are the legal companies that file them.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Yeah this was pretty obviously a move to preserve the user experience. I’d rather have a slower phone with a reliable battery then keep a couple of hundred MHz or whatever and have an unreliable battery.

The case is clearly opportunistic. I hope it loses.

 

[Nobina]

Isn't what Apple implemented a feature called "battery saver"? It lowers the CPU clock speed among other things and you can turn it on and off whenever you want.

The problem is that Apple throttled peoples precious iPhones down without saying anything. Like implementing spyware or a virus "for your safety", suure. People didn't know what was going on, why their phone was slower. Apple could've just told them beforehand in a million ways.

 

[PixelMediaArts]

So what you are saying is that my iPhone 6s should last longer than 15 minutes?

 

[Puiu]

Yeah this was pretty obviously a move to preserve the user experience. I’d rather have a slower phone with a reliable battery then keep a couple of hundred MHz or whatever and have an unreliable battery.

The case is clearly opportunistic. I hope it loses.

That's the biggest BS I've ever heard from someone. This kind of thinking (akin to simping to their favorite brand) is why big companies can do whatever the hell they want and piss all over their customers.

How the hell do you preserve the user experience when everything is much slower? Everything becomes laggy to hell and takes forever to open and people are oblivious as to why. Some apps become unusable because of the bad performance. The only logical explanation a costumer can draw from what he knows is that the apps require newer better phones after they were updated --> aka sales for Apple (aka planned obsolescence).

 

[Shadowboxer]

That's the biggest BS I've ever heard from someone. This kind of thinking (akin to simping to their favorite brand) is why big companies can do whatever the hell they want and piss all over their customers.

How the hell do you preserve the user experience when everything is much slower? Everything becomes laggy to hell and takes forever to open and people are oblivious as to why. Some apps become unusable because of the bad performance. The only logical explanation a costumer can draw from what he knows is that the apps require newer better phones after they were updated --> aka sales for Apple (aka planned obsolescence).

It’s not bullshit it’s the truth. Lithium batteries drop the voltage level over time and when it drops below a certain point the phone will simply power down. The higher the clock speed the more voltage you need to power it. So by reducing the clocks of the CPU Apple ensure their older devices won’t hard crash on a user.

If you genuinely believe this is planned obsolescence then you definitely do not understand how phones work.

 

[Puiu]

It’s not bullshit it’s the truth. Lithium batteries drop the voltage level over time and when it drops below a certain point the phone will simply power down. The higher the clock speed the more voltage you need to power it. So by reducing the clocks of the CPU Apple ensure their older devices won’t hard crash on a user.

If you genuinely believe this is planned obsolescence then you definitely do not understand how phones work.

The battery having lower voltage over time is irrelevant and you don't understand something that simple. If the battery is no longer good you change it or use some battery saving methods, you don't make the phone unusable and don't tell your customers. Other phones don't just "power down" they just don't last as long. It's how you know your phone's battery is dying.

As it stands, the only reason Apple did it was to force people to buy a new phone. This is a known indisputable fact. You don't do something like this in secret and get to say that it's for everyone's "good" when the entire industry is doing the opposite. Defending Apple on this is retarded at best.

It's the same BS as with their retarded repair policy/business. Only paid politicians defend it.

 

[Shadowboxer]

The battery having lower voltage over time is irrelevant and you don't understand something that simple. If the battery is no longer good you change it or use some battery saving methods, you don't make the phone unusable and don't tell your customers. Other phones don't just "power down" they just don't last as long. It's how you know your phone's battery is dying.

As it stands, the only reason Apple did it was to force people to buy a new phone. This is a known indisputable fact. You don't do something like this in secret and get to say that it's for everyone's "good" when the entire industry is doing the opposite. Defending Apple on this is retarded at best.

It's the same BS as with their retarded repair policy/business. Only paid politicians defend it.

Apple need to demonstrate to the court how if they told people they would reduce clock speeds that people would mis-interpret it exactly as you have.

 

[Puiu]

Apple need to demonstrate to the court how if they told people they would reduce clock speeds that people would mis-interpret it exactly as you have.

Apple never told people that they are reducing clocks. It was discovered by somebody else. Thus the lawsuit.

It's simple, they were doing it intentionally to make you buy new hardware. There were no "user experience" considerations, they were not warning users that the battery was dying (even though they clearly could), they were just destroying the phone's performance.

You are just making up crappy excuses that make zero sense. Kinda like those people who are trying to defend Apple in the right to repair issues. But unlike those senators, you are not getting paid to do it, you are doing free "community" work.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Apple never told people that they are reducing clocks. It was discovered by somebody else. Thus the lawsuit.

It's simple, they were doing it intentionally to make you buy new hardware. There were no "user experience" considerations, they were not warning users that the battery was dying (even though they clearly could), they were just destroying the phone's performance.

You are just making up crappy excuses that make zero sense. Kinda like those people who are trying to defend Apple in the right to repair issues. But unlike those senators, you are not getting paid to do it, you are doing free "community" work.

So you don’t think they could just choose not to support the older devices to get people to upgrade?

Im not making “crappy excuses”. What’s happened here is you don’t grasp what’s going on. You genuinely believe Apple would choose to spend large amounts supporting older devices where they don’t have to but then gimp the clocks speeds a bit to get people to upgrade.

Yeah, you definitely don’t get it..

 

[Puiu]

So you don’t think they could just choose not to support the older devices to get people to upgrade?

Im not making “crappy excuses”. What’s happened here is you don’t grasp what’s going on. You genuinely believe Apple would choose to spend large amounts supporting older devices where they don’t have to but then gimp the clocks speeds a bit to get people to upgrade.

Yeah, you definitely don’t get it..

If by support you mean "cripple" the phones then yeah, they did it. FYI they gimp even newer devices and they do it in multiple ways, most of what they do is considered anti-consumer (including their BS repair policy).

I don't understand why you are trying to defend anti-consumer practices meant to force people to upgrade. This is beyond common sense. When a battery is dying you automatically understand this and you go and change it (if you can). But if you intentionally hide some of the signs of a dying battery by making the phone slower (and not telling the phone's owner) you give the impression that newer phones are much faster and you need an upgrade. This only benefits investors and is clearly bad for consumers.

Normal people (especially Apple fans) don't know technical details, they just know that the phone is too slow to run newer applications and that they need a new one. This is the "genius" of what Apple was doing.

I don't need to "get" your opinion on what happened. Facts are facts and this is why they got sued for and lost.