If You Are Holding an Older iPhone You May Be Eligible for $25 From Apple

Last updated September 14, 2021
Written by:
Bill Toulas
Bill Toulas
Cybersecurity Journalist

A class-action lawsuit submitted in a Californian court back in March 2020 has been granted approval by the judge who reviewed the request. The plaintiffs demanded the payment of $500 million for 20,000,000 device owners, which would be a compensation of $25 for each claimant. The case concerns Apple’s decision to slow down older devices via a technically-induced throttling that was introduced with the update from iOS 10.2.1 to iOS 11.2.

RELATED: Californian Court to Accept a Settlement of $500 Million for Apple’s Throttling

Apple acknowledged the issue and justified the decision by saying they were merely trying to protect the user experience from interruptions. Still, users and consumer protection offices never accepted this explanation. After all, the release notes mentioned “improved performance and bug fixes” without asterisks or exceptions. So, the plaintiffs felt deceived by the tech company and damaged financially, as they had to buy new devices at that time. If Apple hadn’t throttled their devices, they would have kept them for longer.

Apple is still rejecting all that, maintaining that it intended to protect users from performance hiccups, but they agreed to settle the legal case. So, depending on how many people will submit valid claims, Apple will pay between $310 and $500 million. The payment will be made in cash, and it may be deducted a little bit due to the coverage of attorney fees, incentive awards, and administrative costs.

All that said, if you still hold one of the following devices, you could apply for a claim:

To prove that you have purchased these devices, you will need to include an eligible iPhone serial number in your claim. Also, claimants will have to provide their full names and addresses. Once an application is filed, a unique ID is generated and assigned to it, and the class members are free to update it as needed by using the confirmation code.

Even if you don’t know the serial number of your device, you may be able to retrieve it through the special search tool offered on the claim submission webpage. If you don’t have your device anymore, you may either use the barcode on the device’s original packaging or refer to the purchase receipt/invoice.

The deadline was set to October 6, 2020, while the final hearing in court is scheduled to take place on December 4, 2020.

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