After Apple admitted in 2017 to throttling older iPhones, the company was sued in dozens of lawsuits. The latest settlement will cost the company $113 million. Earlier this year, in March, the company agreed to pay affected users up to $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
The new fee is meant to settle a collective investigation from over 30 U.S states that discovered the company slowed down older iPhones.
In 2017, Apple admitted to slowing down old iPhones in an attempt to conserve battery life. An avalanche of lawsuits followed.
It all traces back to the 2016 software update, which the company pushed to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE to throttle the chips.
The update, iOS 10.2.1, was meant to prevent power spikes from the aging battery to the chips to avoid device shutdowns.
“With the update, iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown,” Apple said at the time.
“While these changes may go unnoticed, in some cases users may experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance.”
Apple’s major mistake was not stating the essence of the updates blatantly at first. That’s the same mistake that forced them to pay French regulators $27 million in February.
“Big Tech must stop manipulating consumers and tell them the whole truth about their practices and products,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.
“I’m committed to holding these goliath technology companies to account if they conceal the truth from their users.”
To furious consumers, it seemed the company wanted to push them to upgrade their devices.
Since the fallout, Apple has become clear with iOS battery-management practices.
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