- Apple is in the soup again and it’s for an issue that doesn’t seem to leave the iPhone maker’s back.
- It is currently facing a $2 billion lawsuit in the United Kingdom for hiding defective batteries.
- Apple is however denying all claims but the case could go to trial.
Apple’s iPhone throttling controversy doesn’t seem to end as the tech giant is currently fighting a $2 billion lawsuit in the United Kingdom for hiding defective batteries from consumers. Apple had already admitted to throttling performance in older iPhones which slowed down these devices, and even agreed to pay millions for the same. Even though it’s been years, the issue doesn’t seem to leave Apple.
This time, the accusation against Apple is that it hid defective batteries in millions of iPhones by throttling them, according to a report by Reuters. The case has been filed by Justin Gutmann who is known as the consumer champion in the United Kingdom, and the lawsuit amounts to 1.6 billion pounds including interest. Apple has been accused of hiding issues with batteries calling them defective, and instead slowed down iPhones through software updates.
Apple is however denying the claims saying that most of the iPhone batteries were not defective, and it only affected a “small number of iPhone 6s models”. Apple also offered free battery replacements for the defective units. On throttling iPhones, Apple did acknowledge it again but said that the performance was reduced by just 10 percent in iPhone 6 models.
Apple throttling iPhones
First incidents of this issue was reported back in 2016 when iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 users complained of their devices slowing down. It was later discovered that the iPhone was actually throttling performance so as to save battery life. Apple also acknowledged and admitted that it enabled this functionality in iOS software updates but it was done so that the older iPhone batteries could survive longer.
These issues led to lawsuits for which Apple had to pay $500 million in the United States, and $113 million separately to 33 states and the District of Columbia. As for the current lawsuit, Gutmann is planning to take Apple to trial with an appeal to London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal for the same. It remains to be seen what will become of this case, and if the iPhone maker will have to pay another fine.
