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Apple agreed to pay $113 million to 34 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. to settle an investigation into its practice of throttling iPhones.
Apple's throttling of iPhone refers to the slowing down of the devices, a step that Apple took to manage the excess load on the ageing batteries of old iPhones .
The Cupertino-based company, in 2016, updated the software that ran iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to ensure the devices don’t unexpected shut down.
But iPhone users complained that some of their older phones slowed down after updating to the newer version of iOS.
Some users complained that Apple was tricking them into buying newer, more expensive devices.
The States claimed that Apple deceived consumers and that it should have replaced the batteries or disclosed the issue.
Confession
All these prompted Apple to issue a public apology in December 2017. It said that the software updates were made to manage excess loads on the aging batteries and to prevent them from shutting down.
"For iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, iOS dynamically manages performance peaks to prevent the device from shutting down unexpectedly so that the iPhone can still be used," Apple said.
The performance management feature manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
A chemically aged battery becomes less capable of delivering peak energy loads, which may result in a device unexpectedly shutting itself down, Apple said.
Remedy
The company slashed prices on battery replacements for iPhone 6 to $29 from $79. It assured to provide “truthful information” about iPhone power management across its website and software update notes.
Apple also reached a separate settlement in March, 2020 to pay affected iPhone owners up to $500 million, around $25 per device.
