British iPhone owners may receive a slice of £853m lawsuit as Apple accused of intentionally slowing devices

MILLIONS of British iPhone owners could receive a cut of an £853million lawsuit that alleges Apple intentionally slowed down devices to mask a battery flaw.

Consumer champion Justin Gutmann, who has taken Apple to court, claims the company failed to inform users that software updates would hurt the performance of their device.

AFP

This way, Apple could push consumers into upgrading to a newer model and avoid any backlash regarding the batteries, Gutmann has alleged.

This is a practice known as ‘throttling’.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday ruled that Gutmann’s ‘batterygate’ claim can proceed to a full trial.

Apple tried to block the hefty lawsuit, but ultimately lost its bid.

The Tribunal said Gutmann’s claim should be certified to continue, but that there was “a lack of clarity and specificity” in the case.

According to Gutmann, Apple exploited its market dominance to deceive 23.8million UK customers by ‘throttling’ seven different iPhone models.

Apple has always denied the claims.

Gutmann last year said he was hoping to get £768m out of Apple through the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

But that pool of compensation cash has grown to £853m.

UK consumers who may be eligible to claim will have owned iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, or 7 Plus models around 2016.

Gutmann’s case claims that many users, beginning in late 2016, found their iPhones suffering unexpected shutdowns, as processing demands led to their battery being unable to cope.

In a statement, Gutmann said: “I’m heartened that the Competition Appeal Tribunal has given the nod for our groundbreaking claim to proceed to a full trial.

“This paves the way for millions of consumers, who were left paying for battery replacements or new phone models, to receive the compensation they deserve.

“Facing a $2.3trillion company like Apple is no small challenge.

“The company has immense resources to defend its anti-competitive practices.

“Today, however, brings us one step closer to levelling the playing field and holding one of the world’s biggest and most powerful corporations accountable for its actions.”

The UK ruling comes just months after Apple agreed to settle a similar class action lawsuit in the US for up to $500million (£412million).

In 2020, it agreed to settle allegations from regulators that it slowed down older iPhones for $113million (£92.7million).

And in France, the company has been fined €25million (£21.8million) by the consumer watchdog for failing to tell consumers that updating its iPhone’s operating system would slow down the performance of older devices.