UK man claims £768 million in damages from Apple over battery throttling
Justin Gutmann, a consumer rights campaigner, has filed a £768 million (US $ 92,73,40,800) lawsuit against tech giant Apple for battery throttling its old devices. The claim seeks damages for about 25 million people in the UK who own older iPhone models.
The iPhone models in question are the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and all the X models. The claim seeks compensation for all the models owned.
The £768 million is an opt-out claim which means that all customers will not have to actively join in the case to seek damages.
WHAT IS BATTERY THROTTLING: Battery throttling happens when there is a reduction in the system performance of a device below what the components of the device were designed for.
In this case, Gutmann is accusing Apple for slowing down the performance of old iPhone models by hiding a power management tool in its software updates, starting January 2017.
THE CLAIM: The tool was meant to combat performance issues and stop older devices from shutting down suddenly because of their struggle to run on the latest new iOS software. Instead, Apple misled users by forcing them to download software updates that slowed down their iPhone’s performance.
Gutmann claims that information about the power management tool was not present in the software upload download description and Apple introduced the tool to hide that iPhone batteries could not cope with latest iOS processing demands.
Talking about the lawsuit 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%.”
“I’m launching this case so that millions of iPhone users across the UK will receive redress for the harm suffered by Apple’s actions,” continued Gutmann.
The legal claim specifies that while Apple did mention the existence of the tool on a later date in the release notes of the update on its website, it did not mention that the tool would slow down the performance of the iPhone.
In 2017, after some customers reported performance issues, Apple said that it would replace the batteries of their iPhone models for a reduced rate and apologised. But in his claim, Gutmann says that Apple did not publicise that the cost of replacing the battery is £25 (US $30) plus return shipping.
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.”
The theory that Apple’s software updates reduce their iPhone’s performance has long existed but this is the first time a lawsuit has been launched.