APPLE has lost the bid to block a massive £768million lawsuit in UK over claims the tech giant ‘throttled’ iPhone batteries.
It comes after the suit was last year launched on behalf of up to 25million iPhone customers.
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Consumer champion Justin Gutmann last year said he was hoping to get about the massive out sum of Apple through the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
His claim was linked to an incident in 2017 around a power management tool on older iPhone models.
The firm is accused of slowing down the performance of iPhone handsets via software updates, a process known as “throttling”.
It was alleged that Apple misled users by pushing them to download iOS updates that were supposed to improve performance when they actually slowed them down.
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CAT today ruled the lawsuit could proceed.
It said Gutmann’s claim should be certified to continue, but that there was “a lack of clarity and specificity” in the case.
CAT said this needed to be resolved before any trial.
It was said in 2017 that information about the tool was apparently missing from the download notes at the time and it wasn’t mentioned that speed could be hit either – though info was added at a later date.
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Gutmann’s claim says Apple did all this to disguise the fact that iPhone batteries were unable to cope with new iOS.
Apple apologised in late 2017 after users complained about performance issues.
The company pledged to replace batteries at a heavily reduced price for a limited time, and also introduce a feature to allow users to turn off the power management tool.
Apple boss Tim Cook also publicly apologised over the incident, saying the firm never set out to mislead anyone and didn’t intentionally shorten the life of its products.
If successful, anyone who bought the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and X models would be entitled to compensation.
But it’s not clear how much each person could receive at this stage.
At the time, Gutmann said: “Instead of doing the honourable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple instead misled people by concealing a tool in software updates that slowed their devices by up to 58%.
“I’m launching this case so that millions of iPhone users across the UK will receive redress for the harm suffered by Apple’s actions.
“If this case is successful, I hope dominant companies will re-evaluate their business models and refrain from this kind of conduct.”
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In response, Apple told The Sun: “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.”
