Apple Inc has been entangled in a new lawsuit where it has agreed to pay a settlement of about $500 million.
The lawsuit, which requires approval by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, involves allegations accusing Apple of intentionally slowing down the performance of older phones to push customers into buying newer models or fresh batteries.
The lawsuit followed complaints by Apple’s customers who said their phone performance slowed down after they installed Apple software updates. According to them, Apple’s software updates intentionally degraded the performance of older models to encourage customers to unnecessarily upgrade to newer models or install new batteries.
Apple’s stance: Although Apple denied any wrongdoing, it said it was only agreeing to settle in order to avoid the cost and burden associated with the lawsuit. The lawyers representing the company also made known that the accusations were false as the problems were mainly due to high usage, temperature changes, and other issues and that its engineers had tried to address the problems as quickly as possible.
(READ MORE: Apple Watch holds highest market share, as customers ditch Swiss Watch )
Details: The preliminary proposed class-action lawsuit would see the tech company pay $25 per phone to U.S consumers who own iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 Plus or SE that ran on iOS 10.2.1 or any of the later operating systems.
Users of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which ran iOS 11.2 or later before December 21, 2017, are also covered by the settlement.
The settlement is yet to be finalised as the cost may vary depending on the number of people suing the company. Consumers may also not be happy with the $25 payout as it may seem a little low. Tech Crunch reports that a new iPhone can cost anywhere from $649 to $849.
Apple has been reportedly fined $27 million by the French government for the same issue in recent times.
