Another day, another lawsuit. Euroconsumer — a consumer group “working to promote consumer information, defense of their rights and personalized services in five countries” — has filed lawsuits against in Belgium and Spain over an iOS update that throttled iPhone performance, with two more suits planned for Italy and Portugal.
The four complaints seek about 180 million euros in damages from Apple, reports the Financial Times (a subscription is required to read the article). Euroconsumer offers services in Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil.
Apple pushed updates to mask problems with the battery, knowing it would slow down phones,” said Els Bruggeman, head of policy and enforcement at Euroconsumers, adding that European consumers “just want to be treated with the same respect that was given to consumers in the United States.”
He’s referring to “Batterygate.” In October a class action lawsuit filed in California targets an iOS battery management tool that allegedly hindered the performance of certain iPhone 6, iPhone 7, and iPhone SE series devices.
Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint comes on the same day as a submission deadline for iPhone owners to file claims in a US$500 million settlement that was reached earlier this year. The new lawsuit claims battery management tools were pushed out to “camouflage” a “defect” in iPhone, specifically battery designs that were “inadequate because they could not handle the power demands of the software Apple mandated users to run.”
The $500 million settlement would resolve dozens of lawsuits that were transferred to Judge Davila in April 2018 and consolidated the following May, after Apple admitted to occasionally slowing iPhones with older batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns
The lawsuits allege that Apple’s actions violated Consumer Protection Act legislation. In December 2017 Apple published an apology letter to customers in regards to “Batterygate” for slowing down older phones to compensate for erratic battery performance.
The tech giant offered $29 replacement batteries for those with an iPhone 6 or later. Apple also added more battery health information to iOS to let users know when the battery begins to compromise performance.
