CHARGED

Apple Facing $900 Million Legal Fight Over Alleged Battery ‘Throttling’

The tech giant has been accused of furtively slowing down the performance of iPhones to stop older devices from suddenly switching off.

Apple has been hit with a legal claim for over $900 million in the U.K. over allegations that the firm was secretly “throttling” iPhones. Consumer rights campaigner Justin Gutmann has filed a claim seeking around £768 million ($931 million) citing competition law, arguing that the tech giant deliberately slowed down the performance of iPhones—a practice known as “throttling”—by secretly putting a power management tool in a 2017 software update that would stop older handsets from suddenly shutting down. Gutmann alleges that Apple misled users by encouraging them to download the software to improve the performance of devices when it actually slowed them down. He also said he believes the company used the tool to hide the fact that some iPhone batteries couldn’t cope with the demands of newer versions of iOS, and that Apple chose to push the software update instead of replacing older batteries or recalling products.