Ruling by judge in appeals court paves the way for Apple to settle #batterygate class action suit

In May 2020, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila granted preliminary approval to a class action settlement between Apple and the plaintiffs. Apple had secretly sent out an iOS update (10.2.1) to address the issue of degraded batteries causing iPhone models to shut down during CPU-intensive tasks. This update throttled the CPU cores’ speed on affected iPhones without notifying or seeking approval from device owners, leading to the emergence of the #batterygate controversy. As part of the settlement, Apple was ordered to pay up to $500 million to the plaintiffs.

After the judge denied the appeal of two iPhone owners who were objecting to the settlement terms, the way was cleared for Apple to distribute the payments. Each plaintiff is expected to receive approximately $65. The recent ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows the class action settlement to proceed, as reported by SiliconValley.com through AppleInsider.

The attorney representing the iPhone owners, Tyson Redenbarger, stated that they received 3 million claims. The $65 payout per plaintiff is an estimate, and the final amount will depend on the actual number of valid claims. Redenbarger mentioned that some claims are still under assessment. Despite agreeing to pay $310 million to $500 million, Apple maintains its denial of any wrongdoing.