Apple faces another iPhone ‘Batterygate’ legal claim, this time in the UK
Back in 2017, Apple admitted that it released an update to slow down older iPhones with aging batteries to prevent them from suddenly shutting down. It’s been five years since then, but Apple still isn’t done dealing with its repercussions. According to The Guardian, the tech giant is now facing a legal claim in the UK filed by a consumer rights campaigner named Justin Gutmann at the Competition Appeals Tribunal. Gutmann argued that Apple didn’t disclose that it was going to deliberately throttle users’ phone before it did so and that the company didn’t give them the option to disable the setting.
The complaint covers the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X models. If you’ll recall, the company originally released the update that intentionally slows down devices for the iPhone 6, 6s and SE before it expanded the feature’s reach to more devices. Guttman’s complaint said Apple introduced the slowdown feature to disguise the fact that older batteries could no longer cope with new OS updates. “Instead of doing the honourable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free [battery] replacement, repair service or compensation, …read more
