iPhone users who made claims for compensation due to Apple’s alleged “batterygate” have begun receiving payments from the tech giant after the firm agreed to pay up to $500 million in total to settle a lawsuit concerning the issue according to Mac Rumors. It reported that some users had detected a deposit of $92.17 (roughly $7,600) in their accounts.
In the United States, the “batterygate” scandal began in 2017 when a developer revealed that some iOS 10 updates affected older phones, such as the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7, to slow down. Customers complained that this led them to believe that their phones were nearing the end of their useful lives and needed to be replaced or had new batteries inserted.
Previously, Apple had not divulged the reason for the slowdown, but they claimed it was intended to prevent phones from abruptly going off when the battery reached a certain threshold. Several class action lawsuits were launched, arguing that the company’s activities prompted customers to update their phones sooner rather than just paying to have the batteries replaced. In 2018, the tech behemoth apologized for its lack of transparency and reduced the cost of iPhone battery replacements to $29.
Apple stated that its engineers responded quickly and efficiently to the issues, attributing them primarily to spikes in usage, temperature variations, and other concerns.
To avoid the hassles and costs of litigation, Apple denied wrongdoing and settled the countrywide lawsuit in 2020. According to Reuters, the settlement applies to US users of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7Plus, or SE running iOS 10.2.1 or later. It also applies to iPhone 7 and 7 Plus customers who used iOS 11.2 or later before to December 21, 2017. The deadline for submitting a payout claim was October 2020.