Apple is fighting a lawsuit worth up to 1.6 billion pounds, plus interest, brought against it by consumer champion Justin Gutmann on behalf of iPhone users in the UK.
The tech giant is accused of hiding defective batteries in millions of iPhones by “throttling” them with software updates. The lawsuit claims that Apple concealed issues with batteries in certain phone models and “surreptitiously” installed a power management tool that limited performance. Gutmann’s lawyers are asking London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case and allow it to proceed towards a trial.
However, Apple denies that the lawsuit has any merit and strongly denies that its iPhones’ batteries were defective, apart from in a small number of iPhone 6s models, for which it offered free battery replacements. The company also says its power management update, introduced in 2017, only reduced an iPhone 6’s performance by an average of 10%. Apple’s lawyer David Wolfson argued in court filings that the lawsuit effectively alleges that “not all batteries could deliver the peak power demanded in all circumstances at all times”, which is common to all battery-powered devices.
Gutmann’s lawyer Philip Moser referred to Apple’s 2020 agreements to settle a U.S. class action and regulatory action by U.S. states over iPhone battery issues as evidence that Apple was not denying the problem. He also pointed out that Apple had committed to being “clearer and more upfront” with iPhone users about battery health to Britain’s competition watchdog in 2019.
Apple denies that it misled its customers about iPhone battery issues and points to a public apology it issued in 2017, offering cheaper battery replacements to affected customers.
