Apple must defend itself before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the United Kingdom. The judge does not want to drop the Batterygate scandal.
The lawsuit, filed by 24 million iPhone users, centers on the use of bad batteries in iPhones. According to the complainants, Apple wanted to mask the defective batteries with software updates that would ‘throttle’ (limit) the performance of the iPhones. To be clear, these are older models from years ago, including the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7 and 7 Plus.
Batterygate: old case flares up again
The first complaints date back to 2016. A years-long investigation followed in the United States, which ended in 2020. Apple and the US government reached an agreement: the tech giant ultimately paid a fine of $113 million for deliberately ‘throttling’ iPhones with bad batteries. The British judge is now returning to the case and Apple risks new compensation this time. That reports First Post.
The iPhone maker argues that the lawsuit has no basis, but the court has already dismissed that. According to Apple, only a limited number of iPhones had bad batteries and the company had offered to help users free of charge and replace the batteries for the affected devices. Apple previously told Reuters that it has never intentionally shortened battery life (to encourage users to buy a newer iPhone, ed.).
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has now ruled that the lawsuit may proceed, but notes that there is still uncertainty about the merits of the case and other specifications. This must first be clarified before the lawsuit can start, it is said. There is a good chance that the British judge will see the US case as a precedent and that the ruling will follow the same direction. Whether Apple will be fined and how much that could be should become clear in the course of the lawsuit.
