Unlike your iPhone, Apple's batterygate controversy refuses to die
- Reference: 1683099193
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/05/03/apple_batterygate_uk/
- Source link:
The feature – which Apple explained is designed to slow down older iPhones to prevent aging batteries from tripping low-voltage protections – sparked a $2 billion (£1.6 billion) UK class-action suit against the iGiant [1]last year .
This week, Apple [2]showed up at a London tribunal in hope of preventing the suit from proceeding. Consumer affairs advocate Justin Gutmann, who has championed the cause of speed-deprived iPhone users, alleges Apple used the performance throttling to disguise the use of defective batteries in millions of iPhones.
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Apple's lawyers have refuted these claims and denied intentionally using defective batteries. However, Apple's position is complicated by a number of factors.
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The controversy over the power management feature stems from botched batteries appearing in some iPhone 6s units. After reports of iPhones randomly shutting down began to surface, Apple uncovered a defect affecting a "small number of iPhone 6s devices."
According to Apple, some battery components were [6]exposed to a "controlled ambient air" longer than they should have been during the assembly of the 2015-vintage smartphone. In response, the US giant offered to replace the batteries on affected handsets for free.
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About a year later Apple rolled a software fix in iOS 10.2.1 that capped the CPU speed on some older iPhones – 6, 6s, and SE – to prevent them pulling more power than the battery was able to deliver.
[8]Apple, Google propose anti-stalking spec for Bluetooth tracker tags
[9]Apple gives up legal war on iPhone CPU wizard who co-founded Nuvia
[10]Perhaps meeting with Pope Francis did help iPhone sales
[11]The Weather Channel settles another case claiming mobile app privacy violations
The power management feature was later rolled out to all iPhones in December 2017 in iOS 11.2. Once an iPhone's battery degraded below a certain threshold, the handset would throttle itself to avoid unexpected shutdowns due to power loss. But the cost of a potential improvement to stability was slower performance. While this performance mode is set to trigger automatically below a certain threshold, it can be disabled by the user.
If you want to check whether your iPhone is being throttled, navigate to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging.
Apple's decision to make the power management, er, feature part of iOS didn't go over well with folks. Within days of the update rolling out, a class action lawsuit was [12]filed in the US. As we reported at the time, the claimants contended that Apple tried to hide the CPU limitation to juice sales of iPhones and/or force customers to pay for battery replacements.
Apple eventually agreed to settle the case for $310 million (£250 million), and after a brief challenge, the settlement was [13]approved by the courts earlier this year.
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If Apple's bid to block the UK suit from proceeding fails this week it could end up costing Cupertino even more. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/17/apple_may_face_another_expensive/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-fights-2-bln-london-lawsuit-throttling-millions-iphones-2023-05-02/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZFIwwwziAH1abLzULcrqiwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFIwwwziAH1abLzULcrqiwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFIwwwziAH1abLzULcrqiwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2016/12/02/apple_confirms_the_iphone_6s_goes_narcoleptic_because_of_air/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFIwwwziAH1abLzULcrqiwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/02/apple_google_antistalking_bluetooth/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/01/apple_nuvia_lawsuit/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/27/smartphone_shipments_q1_2023/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/26/weather_channel_privacy/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2017/12/22/apple_sued_iphone_cpu_speed/
[13] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/product-liability-and-toxics-law/apple-310-million-iphone-battery-deal-gets-judges-nod-again
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFIwwwziAH1abLzULcrqiwAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Let us be clear. The only winner here is the ambo chaser and not the individual users who will get about £1.20 each before admin fees.
In the UK we don't have class action lawsuits, so this isn't a class action lawsuit, instead it's an appeal on behalf of 1 person, Justin Gutman to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to get them to agree that Apple abused it's dominance in the market to mislead it's customers about faulty batteries and deliberate performance degradation. If the appeal is successful then the CAT could order Apple to pay Mr Gutman compensation. A side effect of that could be that Apple could be instructed to pay compensation to anyone that has had an affected iPhone in that period, in which case a pot would be set up for people to make, and prove they have a claim against. This second part would be a lot harder if people have not kept their receipts etc from the time. Expect lawyers to jump on the bandwagon offering to make your claim for you like they jumped on the PPA bandwagon to get their cut for essentially fillling out a form on your behalf. Apple would be the arbiter of who they own compensation to. It becomes a bit of a mess.
Alternatively the CAT could simply say that faulty hardware is outside of their remit, and instead point out that consumer redress for faulty goods is covered by the Sale of Goods Act and that iPhone owners need to make their own claim to the Small Claims Court under the provisions of that act.
It's an interesting use of the CAT to try get around the UK lack of class action lawsuits, but my money would be it doesn't get anywhere because the Sale of Goods Act already covers faulty goods and redress.
If Apple were trying to hide the problem with the battery, I would sympathise with claim. But according to the article, Apple offered a free battery replacement to all affected users. So I'm not sure what leg Mr Gutman has to stand on.
re: what leg Mr Gutman has to stand on.
It does not matter. He has taken a stand and like many politicians and union leaders... refuses to budge.
If he does lose then he'll be on the hook for ALL of El-Fruity's legal fees unlike the USA.
Where's the popcorn?
While I don't agree with hiding the performance limiting I do agree with the action of limiting performance to keep the phone functioning.
I wish they had made this an option on their older phones when batteries were performing oddly rather than just giving what appeared to be a crash if you attempted to record more than 20 secs of video with 80% or less battery in winter
sparked a $2 billion (£1.6 billion) UK class-action suit against the iGiant last year.
So you could say Apple are being charged...