Apple has had another lawsuit alleging that the California company intentionally delayed older iPhone models. The lawsuit, filed in Italy by consumer advisory group Euroconsumers, claims € 60 million from the world’s most valuable company, which is currently worth about $ 2.4 billion. If the lawsuit is successful, owners of the affected iPhone models will receive around € 60 per device, which has been converted to around around £ 53.
The smartphones affected by the so-called battery hole scandal are the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Therefore, if you have purchased one of the devices and the case is successful, you may be eligible for the compensation awarded to Euroconsumers. Consumer Group Policy Chief Els Bruggeman said: “When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect products of sustainable quality. Unfortunately, this is not what happened to the iPhone 6 series. Not only were consumers deceived, and had to cause them frustration and financial damage, from an environmental point of view it is also completely irresponsible. ”
Battery hole refers to the fallout of iOS 10.2.1, which introduced measures to accelerate the performance of iPhone models with outdated batteries. Apple introduced the feature without notifying customers that it could intentionally slow down the chipset in their handset. According to Apple, without tempering the processor’s performance, it can draw too much power from older, degrading batteries – which can turn off the phone. Before the feature was implemented, there were an increasing number of reports of users complaining about their iPhone shutting down with approximately 20-30% battery life allegedly in the tank.
Apple claims that these shutdowns were due to the aging battery capacity and the power its processors need to work at full speed, for example when they start graphics-intensive games or video editing.
After the controversy, Apple added the option for iPhone owners to eliminate the limit on peak performance, although the US firm warns that as the lithium-ion battery continues to weaken, it could lead to more unexpected shutdowns when using the smartphone. Apple then also added a Battery Health indicator in iOS that shows an estimate of the maximum capacity of your battery cell. Lithium-ion cells are only able to have a certain number of recharge cycles – this is complete recharging of flat.
The issue probably caught people’s attention not because their iPhones no longer got the maximum production of the disk set to prevent frustrating shutdowns, but because it followed years of unfounded rumors that Apple would deliberately delay older iPhones around September to customers to upgrade to the latest model. Apple mentions that the planned obsolescence was dubbed and that it never weakened the performance of convincing people to buy a new device.
Apple says it’s never artificially slowed down any of its smartphones – only aggressively managed performance to maximize battery life, which cannot be replaced without specialized tools typically found only at Apple Stores.
Interestingly, the speed of the processor is only one component of the software solution that Apple introduced. iPhones with weakened batteries will also dim their screens more aggressively to save power, lower the maximum volume of the built-in speaker and even turn off the LED flash in the camera app to prevent the system from drawing more power than the battery can deliver .
Apple has already agreed to pay $ 500 million to settle a lawsuit in the United States over the bad scandal. It also paid $ 113 million to settle a separate multi-state investigation into the case.
Talk to The edge Speaking about the latest lawsuit filed by a spokesman, a spokesman added: ‘We have never – and never would – do anything to shorten the life of any Apple product, or to shorten the user experience to upgrade of the customer. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and keeping iPhones as long as possible is an important part of that. ”