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Apple to pay 500 million dollars to settle lawsuit over throttling iPhone batteries in the U.S.

The dispute over Apple's battery scandal appears to be on the verge of being resolved. To sum it up, in 2017 it was discovered that Apple made processor speed dependent on the aging of iPhone batteries and artificially limited them. The Cupertino-based manufacturer claimed at the time that the motive behind the move was to prevent sudden shutdowns, but was quickly criticized for not knowing the existence of the feature.

Many disappointed customers filed class-action lawsuits at the time, which were then combined into a major lawsuit in 2018. Now the lawsuit to throttle the iPhone battery has reached its climax, as Apple has apparently decided to settle the matter definitively. Unfortunately, the comparison with the throttling of iPhone batteries does not include claims from non-US owners, but we already know this from Volkswagen and the diesel scandal.

In the lawsuit alleging that the iPhone battery was throttled, the complainants claimed that they were led to believe that their devices had reached the end of their life cycle, leading to an early upgrade. Apple apparently filed a settlement with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last Friday. The decision is still subject to approval, but according to the application, the Cupertino giant will pay between 310 million and 500 million dollars to settle the class action.

As a result, current and former American owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE with iOS 10.2.1 or later would receive between 25 and 500 dollars. The lawyers representing the parties concerned have considered the settlement to be fair and appropriate. Just because Apple has agreed to a settlement does not automatically mean that the company has openly admitted a scam. It says (according to Apple) only that the problems have arisen due to temperature fluctuations, high usage and other problems, and that his team has worked quickly and efficiently to solve them. The company also stated that it had settled the case in a settlement mainly in order to cover the expenses and costs associated with the dispute.

It should be noted, however, that the company apologised as early as 2017 for not being transparent on this matter, and that, to reassure customers, it had temporarily reduced the cost of replacing the battery for affected iPhones from 79 to 29 dollars. It is a good practice not to drain the battery up to a certain percentage, otherwise a faster replacement of the battery could be due. However, since these iPhones are not designed for removable batteries, it makes more sense to take the best possible care in daily use.

Source: Reuters

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About the author

Igor Wallossek

Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.

Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.

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