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Apple Inc has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a previous lawsuit accusing the tech giant of slowing down its older iPhones after launching new models, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The preliminary settlement for the proposed class-action lawsuit was disclosed on Friday night and is pending approval from US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, the report said.
It calls for Apple to compensate iPhone consumers with $25 per iPhone with a minimum total payout of $310 million.
The settlement covers US users of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE models that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later along with iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users whose phones ran on iOS 11.2 or later before December 21st, 2017.
In 2017, Apple had acknowledged a feature to “smooth out” increase in demand for power in its smartphones. The company had said that the feature was meant to prevent iPhone 6 models from shutting down due to the cold or weak batteries.
Apple had been facing consumer outrage and multiple lawsuits since 2017 after it had admitted to reducing the performance of older iPhones to prevent unexpected shutdowns. Post this, the US-based tech giant had sent out a lengthy, public apology note to address the issue in 2018.
“We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down.
We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making. First and foremost, 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,” Apple had said in the note.
Apple had also slashed the price for iPhone battery replacements to $29. Approximately 11 million iPhone owners had leveraged the offer, which had ended up hurting the company's bottom line, Engadget reported.
Apple has denied all wrongdoing in the current lawsuit and has said that the settlement is proposed to avoid the burdens and costs of litigation as per the Reuters report.
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