Apple faces $935 million lawsuit in UK for ‘secretly throttling’ iPhones

London: Apple is set to face another class-action lawsuit seeking damages worth $935 million in the UK over intentionally slowing down the performance of older iPhones to encourage customers to buy newer models. Consumer rights campaigner Justin Gutmann is filing the lawsuit in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London, on behalf of up to 25 […]

London: Apple is set to face another class-action lawsuit seeking damages worth $935 million in the UK over intentionally slowing down the performance of older iPhones to encourage customers to buy newer models.

Consumer rights campaigner Justin Gutmann is filing the lawsuit in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London, on behalf of up to 25 million UK iPhone users who used any of 10 different models of iPhone, reports TechCrunch.

---

The lawsuit accuses Apple of abusing its market dominance to engage in exploitative and unfair commercial practices.

According to it, the iPhone maker “misled” iPhone users by releasing a power management software update that “secretly throttled” the performance of affected devices.

Apple has been sued several times in Europe over the iPhone throttling issue.

In January last year, a class-action lawsuit filed in Italy sought nearly $73 million in compensation for owners of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, and 6S Plus models sold in the country between 2014 and 2020.

Earlier, similar lawsuits were filed in Belgium and Spain.

In 2020, Apple paid up to $500 million in the US market to end several lawsuits accusing the company of slowing down certain older iPhone models with software updates.

Apple in 2017 had admitted that it occasionally slowed down certain iPhone models with older batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns.

Apple denied any wrongdoing, but agreed for the settlement.

However, it apologised for not communicating to users properly and offered affected customers cut-price iPhone battery replacements.

The $500 million settlement meant for affected iPhone owners was equivalent to $25 per impacted iPhone.