Law Apple Settles Lawsuit re: Deliberately Slowing Down iPhones

[Siver!]

Apple pays out over claims it deliberately slowed down iPhones

The tech giant is compensating US customers and faces similar allegations in the UK.

www.bbc.co.uk

Apple has begun making payments in a long-running class action lawsuit over claims it deliberately slowed down certain iPhones in the US.
Complainants will receive a cut of a $500m (£394m) settlement which works out to around $92 per claim.
Apple agreed to settle the lawsuit in 2020, stating at the time it denied any wrongdoing but was concerned with the cost of continuing litigation.
A similar case underway in the UK is seeking £1.6bn in compensation.
The US case dates back to December 2017, when Apple confirmed a long-held suspicion among phone owners by admitting it had deliberately slowed down some iPhones as they got older.
It said that as batteries aged, their performance decreased, and so the "slowdown" lengthened the phones' lifespan.
But it was accused of throttling the performance of certain iPhones without telling its customers, and the uproar resulted in Apple offering a cut-price battery replacement to fix the problem.
It led to the US legal action. At the time of the settlement, it was estimated that each person might receive as little as $25 each but the actual pay-out appears to be almost four times that sum.
In the UK, Apple lost a bid to block a similar mass action lawsuit last November.
The case, first brought by Justin Gutmann in June 2022, represents an estimated 24 million iPhone users.
Apple has previously called the lawsuit "baseless" and said "we have never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades".
But unlike the US settlement, which only applied to devices in the iPhone 6 and 7 ranges, the UK lawsuit also seeks damages for those who had iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X devices.

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$92 per claimant, not bad!

Apple's iPhones slowed to tackle ageing batteries

Customers have long suspected iPhones slow down over time. Now, Apple has confirmed some models do.

www.bbc.co.uk

Of course, they'd already admitted slowing down older iPhones because they wanted to 'prolong the life' of their customers phones.



UK lawsuit probably going to hammer them further, now.

 

[kahiljabroni]

Most scumbag move ever. Should be shelling out billions

 

[Helden]

Isn't planned obsolescence a given in most phones these days?

 

[spamking]

Isn't planned obsolescence a given in most phones these days?

I'd imagine it is, but that's usually due to end-of-life equipment or OS. Not necessarily due to the device deliberately getting slower.

 

[AWilder]

Isn't planned obsolescence a given in most phones these days?

That would be the shitty proprietary connectors they use. What they were doing is slowing down phone's software to encourage people to upgrade and spend money on a new phone. One of the reasons i ditched apple after a few versions. New version would come out and the old version would need a mandatory update too. older phone suddenly works like shit for no logical reason (other than to push you into buying a new phone).

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

great now sue Samsung for the same thing

 

[Fluffernutter]

In college, I came across an article that states Nike lost money the year before.

Their reason was that their sneakers were of slightly higher quality, so they lasted slightly longer than they had been.

Therefore, for the fiscal year, they had less repeated buyers.

So, Nike had a dilemma on their hands:

1. Raise the price of their sneakers.
2. Make poorer quality sneakers in the hopes people buy a new pair every 12 months like clockwork

 

[Otto!]

Good. I hope they get sued in other jurisdictions as well.

Planned obsolescence and similar tactics are dirty ways to do business.

 

[Siver!]

In college, I came across an article that states Nike lost money the year before.

Their reason was that their sneakers were of slightly higher quality, so they lasted slightly longer than they had been.

Therefore, for the fiscal year, they had less repeated buyers.

So, Nike had a dilemma on their hands:

1. Raise the price of their sneakers.
2. Make poorer quality sneakers in the hopes people buy a new pair every 12 months like clockwork

LOL if I had to buy sneakers every 12 months like clockwork, I certainly wouldn't be buying expensive ones.

Imagine buying expensive trainers constantly due to the poor quality.

 

[Scerpi]

My Iphone 8 is hanging by a thread...

The thought of paying $1K+ for a new phone is disgusting

A phone... I've built high end gaming computers for less than that (when video cards weren't ridiculous due to bitcoin miners)

 

[method115]

My Iphone 8 is hanging by a thread...

The thought of paying $1K+ for a new phone is disgusting

A phone... I've built high end gaming computers for less than that (when video cards weren't ridiculous due to bitcoin miners)

I just went for an IphoneSE. It's smaller like older smart phones used to be and still works great. I can't stand how big these phones are getting.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Iff youre one of the poors, get off the apple teet. Theres a whole world of mid range phones for half the price or less.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

- I've owned a old LG-K9 for the last fiver years. When he started having problems i bought a battery. Good that LG doesnt do that.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Iff youre one of the poors, get off the apple teet. Theres a whole world of mid range phones for half the price or less.

- Theres superior chinese phones also.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

My Iphone 8 is hanging by a thread...

The thought of paying $1K+ for a new phone is disgusting

A phone... I've built high end gaming computers for less than that (when video cards weren't ridiculous due to bitcoin miners)

- Its 13,000 reais here.
I wond't pay that on a thing that i can drop, and break at any moment!

 

[MicroBrew]

For a company as wealthy as Apple unless you make the settlement claim something like 10% of their revenue it won't act as a deterrent.

So they will continue to keep being anti consumer because even if they lose a case it doesn't meaningfully hurt them.

 

[mixmastermo]

Isn't planned obsolescence a given in most phones these days?

Nah bro my sidekick is going to last forever.

 

[Ladder Master]

LOL if I had to buy sneakers every 12 months like clockwork, I certainly wouldn't be buying expensive ones.

Imagine buying expensive trainers constantly due to the poor quality.

Pretty sure that is what Hoka does right now and people soak them up.

Durablity is not that great compared to Brooks.

 

[Prefect]

My Iphone 8 is hanging by a thread...

The thought of paying $1K+ for a new phone is disgusting

A phone... I've built high end gaming computers for less than that (when video cards weren't ridiculous due to bitcoin miners)

Past gen or a lower end model like a Samsung A54 is completely sufficient. New phones now offer only nebulous benefits over previous generations or even lower tier models.

 

[tastaylvr]

So most people are paying $1800 to rent an iphone for a few years.