Apple recently agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit regarding batteries in iPhones. The settlement covers models 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE devices.
The settlement attempts to bring closure to what became known as “Batterygate.” In 2016, iPhone 6s owners began complaining that their phones suddenly shut down despite having plenty of battery life remaining. Soon thereafter, owners of other iPhone models reported similar shutdown issues and that the problem was more widespread than Apple would admit.
Apple responded with a software update that reduced the number of shutdowns significantly. In December 2017, Apple was forced to admit that the update fixed the problem by throttling the phone’s performance. Apple claimed it was trying to compensate for the degradation that naturally comes with aging batteries. However, consumers believed the company was trying to force them to purchase new phones by making their old phones harder to use.
Under the terms of the settlement, Apple will pay $25 per phone to qualified owners of the iPhone models identified above. The settlement still needs to be approved by a federal judge.
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