A class action style lawsuit is being launched against Apple in the UK, seeking damages totaling £768 million (about $935M).
The representative action is being filed by consumer rights campaigner, Justin Gutman, citing competition law – with the suit accusing the mobile maker of abusing its market dominance to engage in exploitation and unfair commercial practices, according to the claim. According to the report, he misled iPhone users by applying a power management software update, first released in January 2017 to iOS 10.2.1, that reduced the performance of the affected devices.
The lawsuit is being filed at the Competition Appeals Tribunal in London on behalf of 25 million UK iPhone users who have used any one of 10 different models of iPhone, from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone X (and including the iPhone SE).
The litigation, which is being handled by a litigation fund called Balance Legal Capital, is opt out, not opt-in – meaning affected UK consumers need to actively sign up to be part of the representative suite. (although they will need to provide their details at a later date if the suit prevails and wish to receive their share of any damages – albeit, damages can be as low as ~£30 per affected device) Is).
A website has been launched with details about the suit.
Apple has already faced lawsuits over iPhone performance ‘throttling’ claims in several other European markets.
Back in 2020, it also settled a class action suit on home turf that similarly accused the performance of older iPhones of deliberately slowing down in order to encourage customers to buy newer models or fresher batteries — prompting litigation. Fired up to $500M to complete. away, even if he is doing so without admitting to wrongdoing.
That same year, France’s competition watchdog fined Apple nearly $27 million for throttling older devices without notifying users. In that instance Apple paid the fine and agreed to display a statement on its website about the approval for one month.
Whereas, in 2018, Italy’s consumer watchdog forced Apple (and Samsung) to update with small financial penalties, finding that it could slow down or break the device.
The UK’s latest action on the throttling issue follows what Gutman described as an expert analysis conducted by technical experts directed by his lawyers, Charles Lyndon Ltd, which he said was aimed at reducing demands on batteries. Apple’s device was introduced, which in the case of the iPhone 6s and 7 had the effect of slowing down the processor speed by up to 58% at peak performance.
The complainant further claims that Apple misled consumers because the download details for the iOS 10.2.1 update did not include information about the tool – meaning users were not aware ahead of time of the harmful effects it may have on their devices. it was done.
Instead, users who failed to update to the latest iOS version were told that they risked exposure to bugs and security flaws by missing major security updates. And the suit also claims that some users would be prompted up to 70 times to install the update in a notification, while those who accepted the update were unable to uninstall it, meaning they could lose track of their device’s performance. But were trapped by any negative effects.
Apple later added a mention of the tool to its release notes on its website but, again, the complaint would argue that the tool would mislead customers by failing to slow down the device’s performance – stating only the update “during peak workloads”. Improves power management” to avoid unexpected shutdown on iPhone. ,
It apologized for its handling of the episode — and ran a battery replacement plan through 2018 for all affected iPhone models — but Gutman also accused the company of failing to adequately publicize that program.
Commenting in a statement, he said: “Instead of doing a respectful and legal act by its customers and offering free replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple misled people by hiding a tool in a software update that caused their devices to fail.” slowed down to 58%.”
“I am launching this case so that millions of iPhone users across the UK can receive redress for damages caused by Apple’s actions. If this case is successful, I hope the major companies will reevaluate their business models and Will refrain from such conduct.
When asked why the lawsuit was being filed now, a spokesman for the claimant said he was working on the claim “for some time” with his lawyers. “It takes time to make a claim like this, including examining the technical aspects of it, and we are now in a position that we are ready to file,” he said.
“You are right that several similar class actions have been filed. Although none of the European actions have been successful so far, Apple has been fined by French and Italian regulators in relation to this conduct and the US has settled several class actions in the U.S. Mr. Gutmann understands that consumer law class actions have been certified in Canada and Spain; and that class actions have been filed (but not yet certified) in Belgium, Italy and Portugal. has not been done).
Earlier this year a separate class action style lawsuit was launched in the UK against Facebook’s parent, Meta – seeking to use competition law as a way to seek damages from a tech giant. Is.
Privacy law-focused representative actions dealt a blow in the UK last year when the Supreme Court sided with Google – ending a long-running lawsuit over a workaround that was applied to Apple’s Safari between 2011 and 2012. Overrides the privacy settings of iPhone users.
Class action style litigation in the Safari workaround case failed because the court deemed it necessary to demonstrate damages/damages on an individual basis, rather than applying a equitable compensation – so it will be interesting to see whether litigation attorneys can be used Contest claims to extract representative damages on harmful Big Tech practices either through in-court or out-of-court settlement.
