If you are an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, or a 7 Plus owner, you could be eligible to receive Rs 5000 from Apple as a compensation for secretly slowing down your phone’s performance. The iPhone company has agreed to pay up to $500million in compensation to iPhone owners who were affected by the company’s “batterygate scandal.”
The scandal involved Apple secretly slowing down the performance of older iPhone models in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns due to aging batteries. The company, in 2020, agreed to pay up to $500 million in response to a lawsuit alleging that it had committed “one of the largest consumer frauds in history” by secretly slowing the performance of several iPhone models in an attempt to fix battery and processor issues in these phones.
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According to a report from The Mercury News (via 9to5mac), appeal of two iPhone owners who opposed the settlement, was rejected by the judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals bringing an end to a nearly five-year long batterygate drama.
The settlement which was approved by US court covers customers who owned an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE (first generation), iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus released between year 2014 and 2016.
The terms of settlement direct Apple to pay a minimum of $310 million and up to $500 million, depending on how many people filed claims. If you own one of these phones and want to file a claim, you are eligible for receiving the claim only if you applied for it on or before October 6, 2020.
According to Tyson Redenbarger, a lawyer who represented iPhone customers in the case, Apple received about 3 million claims and the latest calculation puts compensation at around $65 each which is roughly Rs 5400. However, the exact payout will depend on how many claims are currently under process.
If you had filed for claim on or before the given deadline, you can head to a special website created by Apple. Enter your iPhone’s serial number. In case you don’t have it, you can submit your Apple ID, full name and your address. You can choose the payment mode- if you want the money in your bank account or receive a check over mail.
This is the latest development in the batterygate scandal, which has been ongoing since 2017. In 2018, Apple admitted to secretly throttling the performance of certain iPhone models in an attempt to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making. First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that,” Apple said then in a statement.
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