Yes, I just searched my emails and found 4 confirmation emails (one for each claim I submitted). It was labeled from "Claim Confirmation Email" with the email address "Confirmation@smartphoneperformancesettlement.com".
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Apple Starts Sending 'Batterygate' Settlement Payments to iPhone Users
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Yep, so many people are forgetting the part where Apple would REFUSE to replace your battery. Leaving users with no option other than to get another device.
The truth is that the iPhone 6 and 6s chassis/battery were insufficient for the A8 and A9 chips to perform without causing a shut down, so they implemented the throttle to address it. This was more of an engineering issue, much like the bending, which then turned into a PR issue. There's a reason the A10 Fusion chip added efficiency cores.
It woulda been a useful 'feature' if when your battery health went below say 80% a message came up saying 'YOUR BATTERY HEALTH IS BELOW 80% - WE RECOMMEND THROTTLING AND/OR REPLACING YOUR BATTERY. WANNA DO THAT?'
In reality what happened was:
- iPhone 7 was released... they throttled the iPhone 6 and earlier to make older phones feel slower (purely as a shonky nudge tactic).
- Replacement batteries did not disable the throttling. There was zero relationship between battery health and throttling (it was based purely on what model of phone you had, with only the latest models... even ones with dud batteries... being excluded from the throttling).
- In court Apple lied through their teeth and said and said 'oh we did it to benefit customers!!!' (Yeah so why didn't replacing your battery fix the throttling? Also what benefit is it to hide that a battery needs replacing instead of telling people so that they can replace them?)
- Fanboys are still in denial that Apple were shonky as hell over this one and that it was purely a nudge tactic.
That's why we now have to pay $100 for battery replacement in some countries.
Great…americans litigating again, rest of the world has to pay higher prices. Reading through the comments here, it looks like half people who received their check, don't even grasp the issue at hand, they just saw: “oh looky I get money back”.
This has the same quality like insurance fraud for me. I hope you guys feel better now.
This has the same quality like insurance fraud for me. I hope you guys feel better now.
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let’s see how many of the weird people on here take the bait:
i deserve and am entitled to even more money from apple. and i’ve earned it.
i deserve and am entitled to even more money from apple. and i’ve earned it.
The next class action lawsuit is going to be from users burned by the CarPlay / iPhone 15 fiasco, among whom I count myself. I have already spent more than $50 on a Belkin cable and an Apple OEM lightning-USB-C adapter. The former works but not in all circumstances, the latter simply doesn't work even with the Apple OEM USB-A to lightning cable I have in my car. Apple deserves this upcoming lawsuit for sure.
Apple in 2020 agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit in the U.S. that accused the company of "secretly throttling" some iPhone models, and payouts finally started going out this week to individuals who submitted a claim.
The website for the so-called "batterygate" settlement said payments would likely start to be distributed this January, and payouts have began on schedule. MacRumors readers Ken Strand and Michael Burkhardt are among the individuals who have received payments of $92.17 per claim from Apple as part of the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed in December 2017, shortly after Apple revealed that it throttled the maximum performance of some iPhone models with "chemically aged" batteries when necessary to prevent the devices from unexpectedly shutting down. Apple introduced this power management system in iOS 10.2.1, but it initially failed to mention the change in that update's release notes. Apple apologized about its lack of transparency, and temporarily lowered the price of iPhone battery replacements to $29 in 2018.
Despite apologizing over the way it communicated the change, Apple repeatedly denied all allegations and never admitted to any legal wrongdoing. Apple said it agreed to the settlement only to "avoid burdensome and costly litigation."
The class included any U.S. resident who owned an affected iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and/or iPhone SE that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later, and/or an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later, before December 21, 2017. The deadline to submit a claim for a payment was in October 2020.
Apple continues to have a performance management system on the iPhone 6 and newer.
Article Link: Apple Starts Sending 'Batterygate' Settlement Payments to iPhone Users
Agreed, but, it is on Apple that their communication about this was incredibly clumsy.
I’ll happily turn down those 92 dollars to not have the US justice system in my country.
It is quite naive to think that what Apple was trying to do was to improve the experience for older phones. If that was the case there was no need to be secretive…
The update that included the throttling mentioned improvements to peak load power management. That’s what preventing the phone from shutting off unexpectedly is about.
How can that be true if there weren’t any lawsuits about shutdowns? Answer: shutdowns were a standard safety feature in every mobile phone being sold. All Apple did was provide an alternative way of handling the situations where the phone could shut down unexpectedly.
The funny thing is that people still believe that Apple did slow down their phones on purpose, not realizing it was a battery limit.
If Apple had been upfront and open about what they were doing, that rumor/conspiracy theory would have never taken hold.
What exempts the conspiracy theorists from being upfront/open? They’re the ones that were lying. They’re the ones that deserve a lawsuit.
What should they be open about? Specifics please. Why is the burden on them, and not the company that made the change without notifying anyone?
Unless you have written and subpoena-backed proof from Apple, it's all up in the air and will stay that way. Apple didn't disclose what they were doing, and that was an incorrect choice. This payout, plus the conspiracy theories are the consequences. Their PR team is smart enough to know what would happen.
The quick apology from Apple (Tim Cook, directly) and quick agreement to a payout indicates they knew they were in the wrong.
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Someone that thinks they know more than others, but somehow is on the wrong side of the argument.
If the phone shuts off, so be it. It’s time for a battery replacement. The purposeful slowdown of older devices, on top of purposeful software slowdowns, is what got Apple in trouble. Transparency was key here, and they weren’t being transparent. You can’t remove horsepower on a car after 100k miles to “save the life of the car”, without telling people you’re doing it. Even if it’s at the benefit of the longevity of the car.
If you ever used an iPhone 3G at its end of life, you would know the pain of Apple’s planned obsolescence with earlier iPhones.
Apple played with fire and got burned with this one, pretty simple.
The settlement payout is coming from a law firm, not from Apple. When and if you decided to sign on to this, you decided how you wanted to be paid...mailed check or direct checking deposit were the options.
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I don't think that is the issue at all.
It's that both they as a company, (there is no way that they could have not known), and at the Genius bar level were;
Misdiagnosing the phone condition, so that they could......
Do things like upselling new $1000 phones when not necessary as a $100 battery change would do the job.
Dishonesty opening the phone and saying, oh the water sensor has gone off - warranty void. No entitlement to battery.
This has been mentioned ad nauseum in this and many other outlets, including the 'official' Apple support forum, (official is snarkliy in quotes as Apple says they don't have employees on the platform, no doubt to be able to save money and distance themselves from problems when they choose to).
Remember, Apple receive data from the phones at every sync, repair and update. They had more than enough info to be able to ask their client about symptoms the second they walk in the door with a phone problem.
Fail. Complete fail.
That problem was there granted but they knew there was an additional problem and went further to behave in a scummy fashion.