Apple is facing a new lawsuit from Deco Protest, a private consumer organization from Portugal, over ‘planned aging’ with the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus. The lawsuit alleges that Apple’s planned aging is forcing consumers to buy a new phone before they would otherwise have to.
As reported by Marketer, this consumer protection organization waited three years without a response from Apple in Europe before filing this lawsuit. Deco Protests is now taking the company to court to defend 115,000 Portuguese iPhone users.
This is not the first time Apple has been sued over alleged iPhone ‘planned aging’. After numerous lawsuits and bad press, Apple announced in 2017 that they would temporarily lower the price of replacing the iPhone battery and promised an iOS update to address the health of the battery.
The statement released today by this private consumer protection organization from Portugal claims that Apple has manipulated iPhone users:
Apple has deliberately manipulated the performance of its most popular devices, the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus, and without notifying its users. Thus, Apple forced several users to replace the battery of their devices or to buy a new smartphone.
Deco Protests is part of Euroconsumers, which has five members of the Consumer Protection Organization in Europe and Brazil. In 2020, Rome’s administrative court ordered Apple to pay a fine of € 10 million. In the US, Apple managed to avoid a lawsuit with a settlement of $ 113 million.
Deco Protests argues in this lawsuit that affected Apple users should pay for the replacement of the battery and 10% of the iPhone value. This corresponds to € 7 million, or € 60 per telephone in Portugal.
Deco Protests also released a video on February 10 asking more iPhone users in Portugal to join the case. In the video, Portugal’s FTC mocks how Apple announces products, and it says ironically that ‘it looks like some people want to be misled.’ You can see it below:
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