Apple was defeated by another lawsuit that claims the Californian company intentionally slowed down old iPhone models. The lawsuit, which was filed in Italy by consumer protection group Euroconsumers, asks for € 60 million from the most valuable company in the world, which is currently valued at about $ 2.4 trillion. If the process is successful, owners of the affected iPhone models will receive around € 60 per device, which is equivalent to approximately £ 53 converted.
The smartphones impacted by the so-called battery scandal are the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Therefore, if you have purchased one of these devices and the process is successful, you may be entitled to compensation awarded to Euroconsumers. Consumer policy group chief Els Bruggeman said: “When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect sustainable quality products. Unfortunately, this is not what happened with the iPhone 6 series. Not only have consumers been defrauded, but they have also had to face frustration and financial losses, from an environmental point of view it is also totally irresponsible. “
Batterygate refers to the fall of iOS 10.2.1, which introduced measures to limit the performance of iPhone models with older batteries. Apple introduced the feature without informing customers that it could be deliberately slowing the chipset inside its devices. According to Apple, without decreasing the performance of its processor, it could consume a lot of energy from old and degraded batteries – causing the phone to shut down. Before the feature was implemented, there was an increasing number of reports of users complaining about turning off the iPhone with about 20-30% of the battery supposedly left in the tank.
Apple claims that these shutdowns were due to aging battery capacity and the energy required for its processors to operate at full speed, when launching games with lots of graphics or video editing, for example.
After the controversy, Apple added the option for iPhone owners to disable maximum performance limitations, although the American company warns that – as the lithium-ion battery continues to degrade – this can lead to unexpected shutdowns when using the smartphone. Apple also later added a battery health indicator on iOS that shows an estimate of the maximum battery cell capacity. Lithium-ion cells are capable of only a certain number of recharge cycles – that is, complete flat recharges.
The problem probably caught people’s attention not because their iPhones were no longer achieving maximum chipset output to avoid frustrating interruptions, but because years of unsubstantiated rumors followed that Apple would intentionally slow down older iPhones in September to force customers to update to the latest model. Called planned obsolescence, Apple says it never slowed down to convince people to buy a new device.
Apple says it has never artificially slowed down any of its smartphones – it has only aggressively managed performance to maximize the life of its batteries, which cannot be replaced without specialized tools normally found only in Apple Stores.
Interestingly, processor speed is just one component of the software fix that Apple introduced. iPhones with exhausted batteries also darken their screens more aggressively to conserve energy, decrease the maximum volume of the built-in speaker, and even disable the LED flash in the camera application to prevent the system from drawing more energy than the battery can supply .
Apple has already agreed to pay $ 500 million to settle a lawsuit in the United States over the battery scandal. It also paid $ 113 million to close a separate multi-state investigation into the matter.
Speaking for The Verge on the latest lawsuit filed, a spokesman elaborated: “We would never – and never would – do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product or degrade the user experience to drive customer updates. 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. “