Apple is no stranger to facing lawsuits and getting sued. But, it’s rare for you to see the company issuing an apology. The last time it made such a public statement was in 2017. It was when the customers realized that it had been throttling the speed of older iPhones.
The Cupertino-based giant stated it was to protect those phones from aging batteries and then offered a $29 replacements for the showers. But it was slammed by a lawsuit and had to agree to pay $500 million of class action settlement.
Now it seems that the iPhone maker has to pay a second installment. It will have to pay it to 34 US states, and some will be $113 million. The attorney generals of 34 US states have sued Apple for hiding the throttling and battery degradation news from iPhone owners.
They argue that by concealing these issues, Apple wanted to spend a year profiting off of people. iPhone users thought they needed to buy a new iPhone, whereas they only really needed to replace their battery. By doing so, they could easily avoid throttling or unexpected shutdowns.
Of course, Apple has denied that and the settlement news means that the issue won’t be dragged to the court to determine whether there was any actual wrongdoing. The settlement (PDF) is not yet fully approved by a judge, but there’s still a chance that the states might see their money soon.
iPhone users had to apply for their $25 worth of the $500 million class-action settlement, but the process of payment is still underway. A fairness hearing is scheduled on December 4th, which will decide whether the settlement was handled properly or not.
