Up to 25 million iPhone owners could be in for a payout after a UK court gave the go-ahead for an £853 million ‘batterygate’ claim against Apple.
The company is accused of slowing down the performance of older iPhones by a process known as ‘throttling’.
Devices reported to have been affected include the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S 6S Plus, SE, 7 and 7 Plus.
The claim, made by consumer champion Justin Gutmann, alleges that Apple misled users by pushing them to download software updates which it said would improve the performance of some devices but actually slowed them down.
This resulted in many iPhone owners in paying for new phones or replacement batteries.
The lawsuit will seek compensation for each model owned and is an ‘opt-out claim’, meaning customers will not need to actively join the case to seek damages.
Mr Gutman called the decision to allow the trial to proceed a ‘major step towards consumer justice’.
In January 2017, Apple introduced a power management tool within in a software update to iPhone users, which was rolled out to slow down older iPhone models with ageing batteries that may have struggled to run the latest iOS software.
Mr Gutmann said information about this tool was not included in the software update description at the time and did not make it clear it would slow a user’s device.
He claims Apple introduced the tool to disguise the fact iPhone batteries were unable to cope with new iOS processing demands and that, rather than recall products or replace batteries, the company instead pushed users to download the software updates.
Mr Gutmann also says Apple failed to sufficiently publicise its battery replacement service pricing of £25 plus return shipping, and that the company abused its dominant market position.
The legal claim says Apple did add a mention of the tool to the release notes for the update on its website at a later date, but says the company failed to make clear that it would slow down older iPhones.
In response, Apple has said the lawsuit was ‘baseless’, and strongly denied batteries in iPhones were defective, apart from in a small number of iPhone 6s models for which it offered free battery replacements.
An Apple spokesperson 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.’
The company sought to get the case thrown out of court, but the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) said Mr Gutmann’s case can proceed in a written ruling on Wednesday.
However, the CAT did sat there was a ‘lack of clarity and specificity’ in the case that needed to be resolved before any trial.
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