Apple faces lawsuit over iPhone 6 throttling issue in multiple European countries

iPhone

Apple is facing multiple new lawsuits in different European countries over the iPhone 6 throttling issue. The company had just been fined $113 million to settle its case for iPhone ‘batterygate’ in the United States.

Apple asked to pay €180 million as compensation for iPhone 6 throttling issue

The class-action lawsuit has been filed by Euroconsumers advocacy group in Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Portugal, and covers 2 million iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus. The case alleges that Apple was not upfront about its change in iOS which slows down older iPhones to avoid random shutdowns. Apple faced a similar lawsuit in 34 states in the United States and agreed to pay $113 million as settlement last month.

iPhone battery throttling

In four European countries, Euroconsumers is seeking compensation of €180 million, which is equal to $127 million. This amounts to €60 per consumer, based on the number of devices affected by the iPhone 6 throttling issue.

The head of policy and enforcement for Euroconsumers, Els Bruggeman said in a statement to CNN:

“We’re being asked to be treated with the same fairness and respect as US consumers.

Consumers are increasingly upset by products wearing out too quickly, the iPhone 6 models being a very concrete example of that.

Consumers don’t accept this kind of behavior anymore. Not only does it cause frustration and financial harm, from an environmental point of view it is also utterly irresponsible.”

Apple had publicly apologized back then when the issue had occurred and provided cheaper battery replacements as a result. It also added a toggle to allow users to disable battery optimizations. However, it has still been facing legal repercussions for its actions.

In response to these new lawsuits in Europe, Apple said that it would never intentionally slow down any Apple product to force users to upgrade, dismissing the notion of “planned obsolescence”.

“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”

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Addicted to social media and in love with iPhone, started blogging as a hobby. And now it's my passion for every day is a new learning experience. Hopefully, manufacturers will continue to use innovative solutions and we will keep on letting you know about them.