Battery upgrade could cost R$4 billion

A decision made by Apple five years ago is causing such a headache these days, that it could cost the company £750m.

The company is being sued by the British Justin Gutmann, a consumer rights activist, for an update implemented in older iPhones to address battery efficiency. Apple acknowledged this action in 2017.

Gottman She claims that these models were slower because of her. It is seeking compensation for the company’s 25 million UK clients. The action was recorded in Competition pleas Court (Competition Court of Appeal, direct translation).

improvement for the worse?

The The update was an undocumented battery management that was slowing down the performance of models like Iphone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X. Apple claimed that this prevented sudden shutdowns.

Among other arguments, the consumer rights advocate says users were hurt by Apple’s decision not to disclose that old batteries could not support updates to the iPhone.

The lawsuit also notes that there has been no campaign to replace, repair or recall the damaged item for free, and that the company has pressured consumers to update their devices, even in the face of performance loss, unknown to the public. This decrease could be as high as 58%.

apple defense

Apple, in turn, admitted the so-called “throttling” of batteries, but only a year after the start of this slowdown.

In a document about what happened, it said that a battery in poor condition could not provide the maximum electrical current required by the processor, which eventually leads to a sudden shutdown of the battery. prison cell. To avoid this, the “deprecated update” allowed the device to continue working, but at a slower pace.

In a statement on the matter, the company said it did not intend to intentionally shorten the life of any product or compromising customer experience to push updates. Today, for the user to check if there are any restrictions, iPhones now have a report in the Settings menu, in the “Battery Health” option.

In the UK, this is just one of the other court cases referring to “strangulation”.

In Italy, Apple was fined 10 million euros (about 59 million Brazilian reals) for the same reason. The Samsung He also received a €5 million fine (approximately R$26 million) for a program with a similar function. In the United States, a class action forced $25 per iPhone to be paid, which could total $310 million (about R$1.5 billion and R$1.5 billion).

* With information from Watchman And the Engadget