Apple was caught back in 2017 for deliberately slowing down iPhones to increase battery life, but the company’s decision continues to haunt it as it was struck lawsuit after lawsuit. Unfortunately, for the consumer, not all court proceedings end up going in their favor and South Korean residents will be highly disappointed with the recent outcome in which they failed to receive any compensation.
Around 62,000 local customers sought compensation of a little over $10 million in a number of lawsuits against Apple
The claim was filed back in 2018 against Apple and its South Korean unit, Apple Korea, according to a report from Yonhap. The lawsuit alleged that the technology giant hid crucial information that the current iPhones would fail to run the latest iOS update at the time. Instead of offering battery replacements or initiating any kind of recall, the report states that Apple informed its customers to download and install the latest update. Instead of seeing improvements, owners of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 models complained that their handsets were experiencing severe malfunctions.
Sadly, The Seoul Central District Court ruled against some 9,800 iPhone owners without giving proper reasoning for the verdict while also informing these individuals that they would have to pay for the legal expenses. Similar lawsuits against Apple have been filed in the past, with around 62,000 customers previously seeking monetary compensation that amounted to 12.7 billion won, or $10.4 million.
Each iPhone owner in South Korea sought an amount of 200,000 won, or $164. Needless to say, a majority of these customers will probably switch to an Android phone as they likely felt that they were stabbed in the back for Apple’s lack of transparency. Evidence that Apple was slowing down phones came in the form of some benchmark tests performed by an iPhone 6S owner, whose iPhone’s performance had been severely degraded.
The owner swapped out the existing battery with a new cell, and the performance was restored, concluding that Apple was slowing down certain models whose battery capacity had diminished over time. Apple later admitted that it kept this practice a secret from its customers and introduced a Battery Health monitor to better inform customers when they should opt for a service. At least some positive outcome materialized out of this controversy.
News Source: Yonhap News
