Justin Gutmann has accused the tech giant of slowing down the performance of iPhones – a process known as “throttling” – by hiding an energy management tool in software updates to combat performance issues and abruptly shut down older devices. Gutmann has filed a lawsuit in the competition court seeking compensation of around 8 768 million for up to 25 million British owners of a number of older iPhone models. He claims that Apple misled users about the incident by forcing them to download software updates that he said would improve the performance of some devices but, in fact, slowed them down. The allegation relates to the introduction of a power management tool released in a software update to iPhone users in January 2017, which was released to slow down older iPhone models with outdated batteries that may be having trouble running the latest iOS software. in order to prevent abrupt shutdown of the device. Gutmann said information about this tool was not included in the description of receiving the software update at the time or that it would slow down a user’s device. He claims that Apple introduced this tool to cover up the fact that iPhone batteries were unable to meet the new iOS processing requirements and that instead of recalling products or replacing batteries, the company pushed users to download software updates. The lawsuit alleges that Apple did add a reference to the tool in the release notes for updates to its website at a later date, but said the company had failed to make it clear that it would slow down older iPhones. In late 2017, after some users noticed performance issues, Apple apologized for handling the issue and said it would replace the batteries at a very slow rate for a limited time and would also introduce a feature that would allow users to turn off the battery. energy management tool. At the time, the company said it had never done and would not do anything to deliberately shorten the life of a product, and Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly apologized for the incident, saying the company had never tried to mislead any tool. However, Gutmann claims that Apple failed to adequately disclose the price of the 25 £ battery replacement service plus shipping costs and that the company had abused its dominant market position. The claim concerns the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X models. He seeks compensation for each model he owns and is an exception claim, which means that customers will not need to be actively involved in the case to claim compensation. Apple said: “We have never done and will never do anything to. Downgrade the user experience to promote customer upgrades. “Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love and to make iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
