Marketeer reports that a consumer protection organization in Portugal, Deco Proteste has filed a lawsuit against Apple’s purposely slowed down batteries of older iPhone models to force users to upgrade to newer models. The filing claims that by pushing the controversial iOS update on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus models, Apple violated European legislation.
According to Deco Proteste, unfair, deceptive and aggressive commercial practices, namely programmed obsolescence, are expressly prohibited.
Batterygate is Apple’s that skeleton in the closet which has come back to haunt it again. Portugal follows 6 European countries and 34 states in the United States to file a lawsuit against the 2017 iOS update which slowed down the aforementioned smartphone models.
Apple faces another lawsuit over battery slowing down update in Portugal
As per the report, the €10 million ruling against Apple by the Administrative Court of Rome motivated Deco Proteste to achieve the same ruling in Portugal. The organization is seeking compensation for battery repair charges for 115,000 affected Portuguese.
Deco Proteste considers that Apple has programmed the iPhones 6, Plus, 6S and 6S Plus to become obsolete, forcing consumers to invest in new equipment sooner than expected. After three years without a response from the American company at European level, the consumer protection organization decided to go to court in order to defend 115,000 injured Portuguese.
As for the amount required, Deco Proteste explains that the appropriate criterion for determining the compensation is the cost of repairing the battery and 10% of the purchase price of the equipment. In this case, it is an average of approximately 60 euros, which multiplied by the 115 thousand injured Portuguese corresponds to almost seven million euros.
In July 2020, the company settled the “device Performance Litigation” class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California for $310 million to $500 million for releasing a “certain iOS software that allegedly diminished the performance of Apple devices.”
