When it rains it pours.
Apple is presently facing no less than eight individual lawsuits over claims it artificially slowed down iPhones with aging batteries. The cases were filed in U.S. Federal Courts in California, Illinois, and New York.
Each of these cases is pushing for class action status.
The first cases were filed in California and Illinois just after Apple confirmed the iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 all experience slower performance as their batteries age.
The suits stem from a chance in iOS 10.2.1, which was released in early 2017, wherein iPhone batteries that no longer held a full charge would spontaneously reboot as their processor usage spiked. Since the process was demanding more power than could be delivered by the battery, Apple addressed the problem by spreading out the processor requests that otherwise caused a spike to spread out over several cycles, effectively slowing down the phone.
This reduced the number of reboots involved while removing the need for users to spend money on a new battery or iPhone, although Apple never informed users as to what it was doing.
Following the release of relevant GeekBench tests regarding the issue, Apple openly confirmed what it was doing.
The action has now evolved into eight U.S. lawsuits along with another in Israel according to Reuters. Battery experts say Apple’s actions were reasonable, especially since the threshold where the fix kicks in—batteries that charge up to only 80% of their original capacity—is considered worn out and end of life.
Where the plaintiffs are concerned, these parties have claimed that battery degradation is a defect. In some cases, the plaintiffs are insisting that Apple should have replaced the worn out batteries while another wants an injunction blocking Apple from using processor performance controls to work around worn out batteries.
The lawsuits are asking for unspecified damages and reimbursements.
Apple still has yet to comment on any of the lawsuits.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via The Mac Observer and Reuters