Millions of iPhone users could be
eligible for payouts, following the launch of a legal claim accusing Apple of
secretly slowing the performance of older phones.
Justin Gutmann alleges the company misled users over an upgrade that it said would enhance performance but, in fact, slowed phones down. He is seeking damages of around £768m for up to 25 million UK iPhone users.
Apple says it has "never"
intentionally shortened the life of its products.
The claim, which has been filed with
the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleges Apple slowed down the performance of
older iPhones, in a process known as 'throttling', in order to avoid
expensive recalls or repairs.
It relates to the introduction of a
power management tool released in a software update to iPhone users in January
2017, to combat performance issues and stop older devices from abruptly
shutting down.
Mr Gutmann, a consumer champion, says
the information about the tool was not included in the software update download
description at the time, and that the company failed to make clear that it
would slow down devices.
He claims that Apple introduced this
tool to hide the fact that iPhone batteries may have struggled to run the
latest iOS software, and that rather than recalling products or offering
replacement batteries, the firm instead pushed users to download the software
updates.
Mr Gutmann said: "Instead of
doing the honourable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free
replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple instead misled people by
concealing a tool in software updates that slowed their devices by up to
58%."
The models covered by the claim are
the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X
models.
It is an opt-out claim, which means
customers will not need to actively join the case to seek damages.
In a statement, Apple said: "We
have never, and would never, do anything to intentionally shorten the life of
any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.
"Our goal has always been to
create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as
possible is an important part of that."
‘Batterygate’
The claim by Mr Gutmann comes two
years after a similar case was settled in the United States.
In 2020, Apple agreed to pay $113m to
settle allegations that it slowed down older iPhones.
Thirty-three US states claimed that
Apple had done this to drive users into buying new devices.
Millions of people were affected when
the models of iPhone 6 and 7 and SE were slowed down in 2016 in a scandal that
was dubbed batterygate.
At the time, Apple declined to
comment, however, it had previously said the phones were slowed to preserve
ageing battery life.
Claire Holubowskyj, an analyst at the
research firm Enders Analysis, said issues like this may continue to crop up,
given the technical limitations of ageing batteries.
"Technology in newer devices
improves in leaps and bounds, not as a steady crawl, creating issues when
releasing software updates which have to work on devices with often wildly
different capabilities," Ms Holubowskyj said.
"Apple generates 84% of its revenue
from selling new devices, making them reluctant to hold back updates to ensure
older models keep working smoothly."
She added: "Until problems of
devices and software updates outlasting and exceeding the capabilities of aging
batteries are resolved, this challenge will recur."
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