Apple can’t block iPhone ‘throttling’ lawsuit, London court rules

Apple must face a UK class action lawsuit that accuses the company of knowingly using defective batteries in certain iPhone models, as reported earlier by Reuters. In a ruling on Wednesday, London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal denied Apple’s request to block the lawsuit.

Last year, Justin Gutmann filed a lawsuit against Apple that alleges the company installed batteries in the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus that couldn’t keep up with the device’s processor or operating system. The suit accuses Apple of hiding this issue while also continuing to push automatic software updates including a power management tool that slowed down, or “throttled,” their processors.

Apple attempted to block the lawsuit in May, calling the accusations “baseless.” The company also denied claims that its batteries had issues, except for some iPhone 6S models. When the lawsuit was initially filed, Apple told the BBC that it has “never, and would never, do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.” Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Here in the US, Apple agreed to pay $500 million to settle claims that it slowed down aging iPhones. Those payments started going out in August for users with affected iPhone 6, 7, and iPhone SE models.