Apple faces £750 mn lawsuit over iPhone software update

Apple is facing a £750 million (878 million euros, $918 million) lawsuit in Britain after a consumer rights champion on Thursday filed a claim accusing the US tech giant of secretly slowing down older iPhone models.

Justin Gutmann says Apple “throttled” the performance of older iPhone handsets after users installed upgrades that they were told would improve the performance of their device.

He claims Apple never told users that the update could slow their device and that the tool was introduced to mask the inability of older iPhone batteries to cope with the demands of newer operating systems.

Apple said in a statement that “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.

The complaint revolves around a power management tool included in a 2017 software update, which slowed down older iPhone models and prevented abrupt shutdowns as they struggled with the overhead of a new operating system.

Gutmann says Apple never told users that the update could slow a user’s device and claims the tool was introduced to prevent costly repairs or recalls.