Apple Batterygate Case: iPhone Maker Starts Paying To Affected Users

As promised in the settlement, Apple has started transferring money to the bank accounts of the US iPhone users who fell prey to the 'secret throttling'.

iPhone 6s users who were affected by the 'throttling' are likely to get their settlement amount now

Source : Apple

In the coming days, you might wake up to a message from your bank stating that Apple has credited money to your account, in case you were part of a major lawsuit. Apple in 2020 agreed to pay up to $500 million in order to settle a class action lawsuit in the US that accused it of 'secretly throttling' some iPhone models. It opened a gateway for people who were a victim of this to submit their claims and as per their promise, the payments have started being credited into the accounts of those users from this month.

A website for the "Batterygate" settlement said that the payments would be distributed starting this year's January. As per reports, people have started getting those payments now. Two readers of a publication named MacRumors got their settlement amount in the past week. A person named Michael Burkhardt tweeted a screenshot in which it was displayed that Apple has indeed transferred $92.17 per claim as part of the settlement. 

Nice thing to wake up to on a Saturday morning — especially after 3.5 years of waiting! https://t.co/efqqgca8NG pic.twitter.com/hqfBV25M6s

— Michael Burkhardt (@mbrkhrdt) January 6, 2024

What Is Apple's Batterygate Controversy?

Back in 2016, a number of iPhone 6s users started complaining that their iPhones had suddenly started to shut down despite having adequate battery life. Apple responded by saying that a “very small number” of the iPhone 6s had an issue with their batteries. The company offered free battery replacements for those models. After 

Then, owners of other iPhone models claimed that their devices were having similar shutdown issues and that the problem was more widespread than Apple would admit. Apple responded with a software update that reduced the number of shutdowns significantly.

Later in December 2017, a lawsuit was filed following which Apple revealed that it had throttled the maximum performance of some of the iPhone models with "chemically aged" batteries when necessary so that it could prevent the devices from shutting down unexpectedly. Apple brought this change but it failed to mention it in that update's release notes. It apologised for the lack of transparency. However, despite the apology it denied all allegations and never admitted to any legal wrongdoings whatsoever. 

Later the brand agreed to the settlement only to "avoid burdensome and costly litigation."

The class action includes any US resident who owned an affected iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, and/or iPhone SE that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later, and/or an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later, before December 21, 2017. 

The deadline to submit a claim ended in October 2020.