iPhone

Apple could still face $2 billion penalty over iPhone throttling from years ago

Zac Hall | Nov 1 2023 - 8:49 am PT

One of the final remnants of iPhone Batterygate from the previous decade lives to see another day. Apple has failed to block a $2 billion lawsuit out of the UK that seeks damages over the long since resolved iPhone performance throttling issue.

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Reuters reports that the Competition Appeal Tribunal has rejected Apple’s bid to have the lawsuit brought by Justin Gutmann dismissed. But while the lawsuit will presumably go to trial, the report notes that there are details that must be resolved first.

Namely, the Competition Appeal Tribunal noted “a lack of clarity and specificity” in the lawsuit against Apple. The CAT also told Gutmann that his “litigation funding arrangements may need to be changed, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in July which said many such agreements were unlawful.”

Apple pointed Reuters to its existing statement on the matter, saying that “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.”

At the time, the issue revolved around iPhone performance lessening over time. This was due to performance throttling for phones with older batteries to prevent the phones from shutting down.

Apple now provides much more transparency and control over battery health, including information on peak performance changes over time. As of the iPhone 15 line, Apple also lets users opt to charge up to 80% to prolong the life of an iPhone battery. Other features include optimized charging settings that intelligently control overnight charging behavior.

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