Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) agreed to pay $113 million to settle a multistate lawsuit regarding its previous practice of throttling the speeds of older iPhones to extend battery life.
Consumers called the practice a “battery gate” as they believed Apple intentionally throttled their iPhones to encourage them to upgrade to a newer or latest model. The controversy prompted the tech giant to apologize to consumers, provided a lengthy explanation about the iPhone battery and performance, and offered a $29 battery replacement.
However, that did not stop consumers to file a class-action lawsuit and attorney generals in more than 30 states to investigate and sue Apple over the battery gate. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich led the multistate lawsuit against the iPhone maker.
Brnovich and his fellow attorneys general said their investigation found Apple knew that battery issues were causing iPhones to shut down unexpectedly. Instead of disclosing the problem to consumers, the tech giant opted to conceal it and release a software update in 2016 to reduce the performance of older iPhones. In other words, it deliberately throttled iPhone speeds to prevent the unexpected shutdown.
