APPLE has lost the bid to block a massive £853million 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 £768m out of Apple through the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
However, that sum has now climbed to a whopping £853m.
Apple has always denied the claims.
Gutmann’s claim was linked to an incident in 2017 around a power management tool on older iPhone models.
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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.
The tech giant had tried to block the lawsuit, but CAT today ruled it could proceed.
The Tribunal said Gutmann’s claim should be certified to continue, but that there was “a lack of clarity and specificity” in the case.
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It said this needed to be resolved before any trial.
In reaction to the ruling, Gutmann said: “This is fantastic news for iPhone users in the UK, and a major step towards consumer justice.
“Apple misled millions of iPhone users by issuing software updates that avoided addressing their underlying battery issues, choosing instead to curb phone performance.”
He said he was “hearted” by the Tribunals call, adding: “This paves the way for millions of consumers, who were left paying for battery replacements or new phone models, to receive the compensation they deserve.
“Facing a $2.3trillion company like Apple is no small challenge. The company has immense resources to defend its anti-competitive practices.
“Today, however, brings us one step closer to levelling the playing field and holding one of the world’s biggest and most powerful corporations accountable for its actions.”
This is fantastic news for iPhone users in the UK, and a major step towards consumer justice.
Justin Gutmann
An Apple spokesperson previously said: “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.”
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.
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.
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If successful, anyone who bought the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus models would be entitled to compensation.
But it’s not clear how much each person could receive at this stage.
