Apparently, “Batterygate” isn’t dead yet. The UK’s Court of Appeal has rejected Apple’s request to dismiss a $1 billion lawsuit over cutting the performance of an iPhone 6 and other models with chemically depleted batteries.
Almost 10 years ago, there were over 60 global lawsuits around the world that claimed Apple “throttled” the performance of some iPhones in an attempt to get folks to upgrade to newer models. 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.
In the U.S., the tech giant paid $113 million to settle the legal brouhaha and 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.
Consumer rights activist Justin Gutmann filed his case in 2022, through the UK’s equivalent of a US class action lawsuit. According to a statement to AppleInsider from Gutmann’s legal team, Apple’s attempts to get the case dismissed on appeal have now failed.
“[The UK] Court of Appeal has given the go-ahead for the so-called ‘Batterygate’ lawsuit — a collective action brought on behalf of millions of UK users, which accuses Apple of intentionally ‘throttling’ iPhone batteries,” says the statement. “Apple will now be forced to defend itself in court, after it tried but failed to get the 853 million pounds [$1.1 billion] claim thrown out.”
AppleInsider notes that Gutmann claims that Apple should have told approximately 24 million users that their iPhones would be “throttled.”
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