Apple will begin disbursing $500 million in the iPhone Slowdown Lawsuit.
In March 2020, the settlement gained preliminary approval. Although the deadline for joining the settlement has long since passed, SiliconValley.com estimates that there were about 3 million claims. These people have been waiting more than three years for their $65 checks. Two iPhone owners who opposed parts of the settlement's terms delayed the reimbursements, but they just lost their appeal in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. After acknowledging in 2017 that their iOS version had decreased the performance of older iPhone models, Apple was subject to a lawsuit. The tech juggernaut at the time issued an apology, upgraded its software, and provided replacement batteries. Apple has consistently denied any wrongdoing and claimed the slowdown was only intended to prevent iPhones from shutting down automatically during particular operations if they were old, extremely cold, or using low batteries. The iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, or SE running iOS 12.2.1 or later were included in the settlement. Prior to December 21, 2017, it also applies to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models running iOS 11.2 or later.
The reimbursement for iPhone users who filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company purposefully slowed down its older models to encourage customers to switch to the newest model, will now be made. As SiliconValley.com revealed last week, a judge has given the go-ahead for the payments.