Dozens of iPhone owners are taking Apple to court over the “Batterygate” brouhaha — the tech giant’s disclosure that it slowed down old phones to preserve battery life, in what could become one of the biggest legal challenges to the smartphone since its 2007 debut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, about five dozen iPhone customers have filed at least 59 separate lawsuits since December accusing Apple of slowing their phones to spur people to buy new ones, according to court records. Efforts to combine the cases into one class-action suit will kick off at a March 29 legal meeting in Atlanta, setting in motion an effort to have the class certified, the article adds. also, a lead attorney and a court location will be chosen.
The lawsuits claim that Apple’s iOS software updates for iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus were provided to iPhone users under the pretense that the software updates were necessary to deliver enhanced security and performance. In reality, however, the updates allowed Apple to slow down the performance of these updated iPhones. This practice is known as “throttling” because Apple intentionally slows the phone’s CPU.
This class action lawsuit includes all owners of iPhone models 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus, and alleges 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 is offering $29 replacement batteries for those with an iPhone 6 or later. The discount, which represents a $50 savings, ends in December 2018. Apple will also add more battery health information to iOS to let users know when the battery begins to compromise performance.
