Apple sued over iPhone battery tweek

Apple defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various US federal courts in the week since the firm opened up about the year-old software change.

The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.

Apple acknowledged last week that operating system updates released since “last year” for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE, and iPhone 7 included a feature “to smooth out” power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge. Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said.

The disclosure followed an analysis by Primate Labs, which develops an iPhone performance measuring app, that identified blips in processing speed and concluded that a software change had to be behind them.

One of the lawsuits, filed in San Francisco, said “the batteries’ inability to handle the demand created by processor speeds” without the software patch was a defect.

“Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement for all affected iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect,” the complaint says.

The plaintiff is represented by lawyer Jeffrey Fazio, who represented plaintiffs in a $53m (€44.6m) settlement with Apple in 2013 over its handling of iPhone warranty claims.

The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an aging computer processor for app crashes and sluggish performance — and chose to buy a new phone.

“If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple’s upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud,” said Rory Van Loo, a Boston University professor specialising in consumer technology law.

But Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, said Apple may not have done wrong.

Reuters