Apple Faces Yet Another Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Secretly Throttling' Older iPhones

[MacRumors]

A group of 18 individuals have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple this week in a Northern California federal court, accusing the company of "secretly throttling" older iPhones starting in January 2017.

The complaint, seen by MacRumors, refers to the iPhone slowdown saga as "one of the largest consumer frauds in history, affecting hundreds of millions of mobile devices across the globe," adding that Apple intentionally degraded devices as part of a planned obsolescence scheme to maximize profits:

While Plaintiffs and the class need not attribute any motive behind Apple's intentional degradation of the Devices, it is evident that Apple continued to do so for the simple reason most frauds are committed: money.

Apple previously denied any kind of planned obsolescence by flat out stating that it never has and never would do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience, to drive customer upgrades:

We have never -- and would never -- do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.

Apple faces over 60 class action lawsuits worldwide over this matter. The first was filed in December 2017, after Apple revealed that it throttles the maximum performance of some older iPhone models with chemically aged batteries when necessary in order to prevent the devices from unexpectedly shutting down.

This latest lawsuit will likely be consolidated with the others in Northern California district court for streamlined proceedings.

Apple introduced the performance management system in iOS 10.2.1, but it did not initially mention the change in the update's release notes. Likewise, in a statement issued a month later, Apple still only mentioned vague "improvements" resulting in a significant reduction in unexpected iPhone shutdowns.

Apple only revealed exactly what the so-called "improvements" were after Primate Labs founder John Poole visualized that some iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices suddenly had lower benchmark scores starting with iOS 10.2.1 and iOS 11.2 respectively, despite operating at maximum performance on previous versions.

Apple apologized for its lack of communication in December 2017, and reduced the price of battery replacements to $29 for iPhone 6 and newer through the end of 2018. Apple then released iOS 11.3 with a new feature that enables users to track their iPhone battery's health and performance status.

The performance management system has also been disabled by default since iOS 11.3, and it is only enabled if an iPhone suffers an unexpected shutdown. The performance management can be manually disabled by users as well.

MacRumors put together a list of frequently asked questions and answers about Apple's performance management system, which can be avoided entirely by replacing your iPhone's battery if necessary. Read our guide on how to get an iPhone's battery replaced at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

The full complaint is embedded ahead...

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Article Link: Apple Faces Yet Another Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Secretly Throttling' Older iPhones

 

[Swift]

They will continue until the lawyers are sated.

 

[I7guy]

They will continue until Apple runs out of money and the US runs out of lawyers. But good luck in winning.

 

[Narcaz]

The iOS update should have been more clear about the real cause of sudden shutdowns and slow performance. In addition to this their 80% health policy prevented customers from replacing worn out batteries (even if they were willing to pay for it) while the geniuses recommended new devices as replacement for suddenly slow phones. Especially the latter reeks of bad intentions and will hopefully result in a lot of lost lawsuits for Apple.

 

[ckhris1613]

Who's surprised? Not me, my older phones always slowed down as have others posted too. Was a matter if time before some intelligent person got into the code.
[doublepost=1564675596][/doublepost]

They will continue until Apple runs out of money and the US runs out of lawyers. But good luck in winning.

Typical response

 

[johnnygee]

All aboard!!! The money train is leaving the station.

 

[popltree2]

"...one of the largest consumer frauds in history". I haven't seen that kind of melodrama since my kid dropped her ice cream and she acted like I just told her our dog died.

 

[KazKam]

Usually I'm against these frivolous class actions, but SOMETHING is going on with older phones. I know my experience is anecdotal, but my 6s was recently running fine until iOS 12.31 (now on 12.4) and all of a sudden my battery is draining super fast. Battery was replaced by Apple less than two years ago, and battery health reports at 88%. This is without any change in my app/usage habits.

They keep doing something that negatively effects the battery performance of my older phone, and it's really pissing me off.

 

[kennyt72]

The so called geniuses at my local Apple store told my sister in law that they recommend a new phone as hers was slowing up and they did not mention anything about battery replacement, luckily she refused a new phone and got a new battery after talking to me. My 6S Maximum Capacity in the battery health in settings has been at 81% for the past 2 years funny how it won't creep below the 80% mark even though my battery is dead if i use it for 30 mins. Apple have been running the battery scam for years and years and I hope they lose all these cases.

 

[Bboble]

There are simply too many damn lawyers in this world!

Why don't we also sue Apple for intentionally boosting performance with iOS updates?

 

[miniyou64]

Because it’s true

 

[trusso]

They will continue until the lawyers are sated.

They will continue until Apple runs out of money and the US runs out of lawyers. But good luck in winning.

In all seriousness, however, I'd rather have too much litigation than too little in this country. Yes, there are frivolous lawsuits, and yes, many lawyers are leaches who ought to be pilloried in the public square - but so long as we have a functioning legal system, it is every person's right to have the merits of their case tried in a court of law. (Let us just hope that it is the law and common sense, not private vendetta, that wins the day.)

As an aside (and a public service announcement), be sure to read up on jury nullification. If you're ever on a jury, it's one of your rights - nay, your prerogative as a citizen and human being - to exercise, even though the courts hope you never hear of it.

 

[Miles Teg]

meh, another day another lawsuit.

 

[e1me5]

Planned obsolescence, my back. My 6s outlived all of my friends' newer android phones and it keeps going strong.

 

[anthogag]

People with ‘older iPhones’ deserve to be throttled. It is pathetic to see older iPhones still used.

 

[AlumaMac]

...but my 6s was recently running fine until iOS 12.31 (now on 12.4) and all of a sudden my battery is draining super fast. Battery was replaced by Apple less than two years ago, and battery health reports at 88%. This is without any change in my app/usage habits.

Ditto, my 6 was rock solid until 12.3. Now it randomly shuts down daily with battery health at 83%.

 

[gnipgnop]

Truly one of the dumbest tech "controversies" of all-time. And still getting press.

 

[steve62388]

Not sure “secretly throttled” needs to be in quotes. They didn’t tell anyone, right? So that’s the definition of a secret. They did slow them down, right? So that pretty much meets the definition of throttled right there.

 

[now i see it]

why is 2 year old news suddenly first page headlines? So another lawsuit was added to the 60 already in the cue. Big deal.

 

[yanki01]

People with ‘older iPhones’ deserve to be throttled. It is pathetic to see older iPhones still used.

yikes. it really bothers you that much on what other people do?


my iP6 was great until 10.3.x and immediately noticed a drop in performance/battery. it was never the same.

 

[mi7chy]

Hopefully, Apple has learned "honest and proper disclosure" by now.

 

[BootsWalking]

I don't think the fraud committed was related to Apple using the iPhone 6 battery issues as a way to induce upgrades to newer phones. I think the fraud was how Apple hid the iPhone 6's design issues, specifically how the battery and CPU weren't properly engineered to handle the customary drops in peak current from normally aging batteries, and how they avoided a recall of the phone by secretly throttling the CPU instead as a way to limit peak current demands. It would have cost Apple billions of dollars to do the right thing and recall the phone.

Naturally part of that obfuscation included some measure of steering customers to newer phones as a way to offload the heavy demands placed on their phone and store support for this issue but I don't believe that represented the root of Apple's misbehavior.

 

[VulchR]

Just recently retired my 4S (yes, 4S) to being the storage device for my music system and bought an XR. As a customer I would enraged if I had been using a battery case to preserve the battery of my phone (as I did), or replaced the battery (as eventually I did), to avoid or mitigate battery issues and Apple applied the throttling anyway. Moreover there is a simple way to get around of all of this - easily swappable batteries. For a company that supposedly makes 'magical' products, Apple can't solve how to put swappable batteries in iPhones? Hard to believe indeed.

 

[AppleTO]

This is getting really old and I’ve never understood why this is a big deal. Apple didn’t invent lithium ion batteries or how they lose capacity and electrical potential over time.

What happens when you decease the voltage on an incandescent bulb? It gets dimmer... duh

Did you know that if you plug an underrated power supply into most laptops they will automatically throttle down the processor in order to prevent power loss? Hmmm... kind of seems like the better option. Apple was only following industry standards for power management.

 

[IG88]

Usually I'm against these frivolous class actions, but SOMETHING is going on with older phones. I know my experience is anecdotal, but my 6s was recently running fine until iOS 12.31 (now on 12.4) and all of a sudden my battery is draining super fast. Battery was replaced by Apple less than two years ago, and battery health reports at 88%. This is without any change in my app/usage habits.

They keep doing something that negatively effects the battery performance of my older phone, and it's really pissing me off.

It's also possible that your battery has degraded. The % shown is just an estimate, based on charge cycles and age.
[doublepost=1564677431][/doublepost]

Apple didn’t invent lithium ion batteries or how they lose capacity and electrical potential over time.

Apple chooses the battery capacity. And the mAh rating is very proportional to its peak current delivery capability. By always going for thin, they used batteries that were on the bleeding edge of being able to deliver peak current.

Notice that this isn't an issue in iPads? Because the battery is much larger compared to peak CPU demand.