Apple’s getting hit by a bevy of lawsuits from angry iPhone owners who say they’ve been cheated by the company. The issue at the heart of the case is the brand’s recent disclosure that it slows down older iPhones to extend battery life.
The first class action lawsuit was filed by two Los Angeles residents who are accusing Apple of slowing down previous-gen iPhone models when a new generation arrives. This isn’t exactly what the firm confessed to though. It specifically stated that it throttled iPhones to prevent unexpected shutdowns when the lithium ion battery got older.
The implication here is that Apple didn’t tell consumers it was doing this, prompting them to buy new iPhones instead of getting a battery replacement. The two plaintiffs say they’ve owned the iPhone 7 and other assorted iPhone models and have noticed that each slowed down when the latest models came out.
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Neither consented to having Apple throttle their iPhone. This is a valid point and has been pointed out by many circles asking for more transparency. It’s unfair for a handset to work as advertised for a year and then slow down without the user’s knowledge, even if it is to prolong battery life.
Moreover, there are plenty of phones around which don’t suffer from unexpected shutdowns. This has got many people wondering if Apple just implemented this tactic as a workaround instead of tackling the problem head-on.
Shortly after the filing of the first lawsuit, a second one appeared in Chicago. This one says that Apple acted in deceptive, immoral and unethical ways by needlessly subjecting customers to buying new iPhones when a simple battery replacement would have allowed them to use their older model.