The iPhone batterygate lawsuit in the UK somehow still hasn’t been fully settled. Three years after consumer rights activist Justin Gutmann filed a case about Apple intentionally throttling iPhone batteries and making the devices slower, the company will have to defend itself in court or pay out $1 billion to UK consumers who suffered from this issue.
In a statement sent to AppleInsider, Gutmann says the UK Court of Appeal just ruled this process: “[The UK] Court of Appeal has given the go-ahead for the so-called ‘Batterygate’ lawsuit — a collective action brought on behalf of millions of UK users, which accuses Apple of intentionally ‘throttling’ iPhone batteries,” says the statement. “Apple will now be forced to defend itself in court after it tried but failed to get the 853 million pounds [$1.1 billion] claim thrown out.”
The activist says approximately 24 million users, including iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus owners, had their iPhones “throttled.” Interestingly, around the time people started complaining about this batterygate, Apple issued an apology in 2017 and reduced iPhone battery replacements from 65 pounds to 25 pounds until December 2018, and in the US, it cut to $29.
Still, Gutmann and the UK Court of Appeal understand this hasn’t been enough. UK iPhone users who had these phones can enroll in the public batterygate lawsuit, although they cannot sue Apple on their own. They can enroll in the claim until June 7 through this website.
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Apple took these measures after the batterygate scandal
After the issue with iPhones throttling due to degraded battery life, Apple started taking action by letting iPhone users know their battery usage percentage, using the iPhone at maximum capacity even if the battery isn’t in the best condition and more.
In the past years, Apple has started offering to limit the charging limit to a certain amount, counting the battery’s cycle, when it was built, when it was first used, and so on.
Even though Apple had a “good reason” to start slowing down older iPhones, at least now new iPhone owners are empowered with all the details about their device’s battery and how to take care the most of it, such as smart charging capabilities that keep the iPhone at 80% during the night.
Still, the company now has to defend itself from the batterygate, and we’ll let you know when it does.
