According to sources, a court in the United States has given the final approval to allow payments to impacted iPhone customers to commence in a class-action case. This means that Apple’s much anticipated USD 500 million lawsuit over the iPhone ‘batterygate’ issue is about to come to a conclusion.
The news comes as other major American companies including Facebook, Juul and Delta Airlines await court movements on their own pending class-action lawsuits.
Each impacted iPhone owner who submitted a claim will probably get about USD 65. According to reports, two iPhone owners who opposed the settlement’s terms lost their appeal before the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals, removing the last remaining roadblock to the agreement.
In 2020, the iPhone manufacturer consented to pay up to USD 500 million to end the legal dispute. Consumers reportedly claimed that their phones were turning off even while the batteries had more than 30% charge, according to the 2018 lawsuit.
The affected devices were iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, and SE models with iOS 10.2.1 or later prior to December 21, 2017, as well as iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models with iOS 11.2 or later before that date. Apple has not yet responded to the news.
“The lawsuit filed in 2018 claimed that iPhones were shutting down unexpectedly despite a battery life of 30% or more because the hardware couldn’t keep up with the increasing demands of new software updates and claimed that when confronted with the issue the company purposefully slowed down the performance of the phones with a new update to reduce the number of shutdowns,” stated a Forbes report.
“Apple admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay customers between USD 310 million to USD 500 million in the case, depending on how many individuals file claims, on top of a separate USD 113 million settlement it agreed to in a separate lawsuit brought by the State of California and Alameda and Los Angeles counties,” it stated further.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal against the historic settlement with Apple of a multistate class action, according to the legal firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, which represents Apple customers.
After years of litigation, the CPM team and co-lead counsel Kaplan Fox were able to reach a settlement on behalf of a class of almost 100 million iPhone customers which is the greatest all-cash recovery in the history of computer intrusion cases.
“The settlement is the outcome of a protracted inquiry and contentious legal proceedings. In light of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, we can now deliver immediate cash reimbursements to impacted Apple consumers, which makes us tremendously proud,” said Mark C. Molumphy, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.