If you’re an iPhone owner who signed up to receive a payment as a part of Apple’s “batterygate” iPhone throttling lawsuit settlement, you should soon be receiving your payment.
The Mercury News reports the judge overseeing the lawsuit has thrown out an appeal from two iPhone owners who were attempting to object to the settlement, which clears the way for the payments to start going out.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in December 2017, shortly after it was revealed that Apple was throttling the maximum performance of some of its older iPhone models that had chemically aged batteries to prevent the devices from unexpectedly shutting down. Apple introduced a battery/performance management system in iOS 10.2.1, but it did not explicitly mention the change in the update’s release notes.
In an effort to resolve the controversy, Apple began replacing worn iPhone batteries for $29, doing so until the end of 2018.
Apple in 2020 agreed to settle the “batterygate” lawsuit by paying out $500 million. The lawsuit accused the company of secretly throttling older iPhone models. The class action lawsuit was open to U.S. customers who had an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, or 7 Plus running iOS 10.2.1 or iOS 11.2 prior to December 21, 2017.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Apple will provide a cash payment of approximately $25 to each eligible iPhone owner who submits a claim. All claims had to be submitted online or received by letter mail by October 6, 2020.