A consumer protection group in Europe opened the latest class action against Apple saying the company intentionally strangled older iPhones in Italy. First reported by TechCrunch, the new lawsuit seeks € 60 million (about $ 73 million) in compensation – or about € 60 per device – for owners of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus models sold in Italy between 2014 and 2020. Euroconsumers , an umbrella defense organization in the EU that includes the Italian Altroconsumo, says the € 60 compensation is the average amount consumers pay to replace their device batteries.
“When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect sustainable quality products. Unfortunately, this is not what happened with the iPhone 6 series, ”said Els Bruggeman, head of policy and enforcement at Euroconsumers, in a statement. “Not only have consumers been defrauded, they have also had to face frustration and financial losses, from an environmental point of view it is also totally irresponsible.”
Euroconsumers filed two similar cases in December on behalf of the member organizations Test-Achats in Belgium and OCU in Spain. The group said in a press release that it plans a fourth lawsuit in Portugal.
“We never did – and we would never do – anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer updates,” said an Apple spokesman in an email to The Verge. “Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
Apple agreed to a $ 500 million deal in the United States last March, after admitting that it slowed older iPhones. He compensated consumers who bought an iPhone 6 or 7, which was strangled to preserve battery life. The case emerged from the tech giant’s controversial “Batterygate”, when iPhone users discovered in 2017 that iOS limited processor speeds as iPhone batteries aged. Apple did not reveal to consumers that the feature – designed to solve problems with phone performance – existed. Users said that if they knew about the deceleration feature, they would have simply replaced the battery instead of buying a new phone, as many did.
The company agreed to a second deal in November – this time with 34 states – for an additional $ 113 million. State Attorneys General said Apple “fully understood” that by hiding the intentional slowdown in older phones, the company could profit from buying new phones instead of replacing batteries. Apple did not admit any of the allegations in that agreement.
Update on January 25, 10:45 ET: Adds the comment from the Apple spokesman.