Skip to main content

Apple to pay up to $500 million in iPhone throttling settlement

 

Apple was first accused of throttling older iPhones in 2018, and now the company is paying for it. According to a report from Reuters, Apple agreed to a preliminary settlement of up to $500 million, including a payout of around $25 per impacted iPhone.

Recommended Videos

The lawsuit only covers U.S. iPhone owners, and only covers the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone SE. Named class members in the suit will get either $1,500 or $3,500, and $90 million of the settlement will go toward attorney fees.

The lawsuit dates back to 2017, when Apple was accused of throttling older iPhones — leading users to believe that their devices were at the end of the lifespan. Apple later admitted that it was throttling iPhones — but was doing so to prevent unwanted shutdowns caused by older batteries not being able to maintain peak performance. The throttling feature was rolled out as part of iOS 10.2.1, however at the time it wasn’t communicated to customers.

Soon after the feature was discovered in 2017, Apple released a software update that allowed users to disable throttling if they wanted to. Of course, the result of disabling the feature is that your iPhone might switch off thanks to the fact that the aging battery can’t sustain peak performance any more. Because of the impact of battery on performance, if you get a new battery for your older iPhone, you may experience a performance boost.

As a result of the controversy, Apple apologized and discounted battery replacements to only $29 in 2018.  It also changed how newer iPhones handle battery performance, including smart features that minimize the impact of throttling. In Italy, Apple was forced to add a message on its website apologizing for the scandal, and even paying a fine. Only a few months ago, France’s competition and fraud watchdog agency hit Apple with a 25 million euro fine.

Dozens of lawsuits were filed in the months following the discovery, however the U.S. Judicial Panel combined the lawsuits — so this settlement should cover all of them.

Apple has long been accused of “planned obsolescence,” where the company pushed software updates that slow down iPhones, resulting in users being forced to upgrade. While this situation isn’t necessarily a case of that, it still doesn’t do much to convince users that Apple isn’t forcing upgrades.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
This one iPadOS 26 feature has me excited for the iPhone Fold
Semi-open state of a foldable iPhone concept

Samsung is set to launch the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold book-style folding phone this Summer, but its biggest rival is yet to show its folding phone hand. Apple has long been expected to unveil an iPhone Fold, and the latest rumors suggest that it will launch next year.

I’ve used almost every folding phone released globally, with some exceptions for extremely obscure ones. While I've always been curious what an iPhone Fold would look like, I was fairly certain that Apple shouldn't build it, as I wasn’t sure they could deliver on one necessary feature.

Read more
These three iOS 26 beta features are my favorite so far
The Liquid Design lock screen on the iOS 26 developer beta 1 running on the iPhone 16 Pro

For fans of the Apple ecosystem, it’s been an incredible week. Apple’s annual WWDC 2025 keynote revealed a whole new Liquid Glass design that’s unified across all its platforms. Also unified across all platforms is the numbering scheme, with iOS 26 designed to represent the year of release… plus one. 

The new platform doesn’t deliver one of the key things I asked for — multitasking, which is available on iPadOS 26 — but it does bring several new features that make the iPhone far more usable. 

Read more
Apple’s new iPadOS 26 shows Google what Android tablets need
4 windows open multitasking on the iPad Pro M4 11 running iPadOS 26 developer beta 1

Since the launch of the first iPad, Android tablets have struggled to compete. A lack of optimized apps means that Android tablets still don’t offer as seamless a transition to larger displays, which also impacts the best folding phones, where many apps don’t take advantage of the larger displays.

However, one area where Android tablets have outperformed the iPad is in productivity and multitasking. Samsung’s DeX desktop mode has been key to ensuring that some Android tablets offer a desktop-like experience, albeit one that needs more optimized applications. Last week, OnePlus also joined the party with the innovative Open Canvas system on the OnePlus Pad 3.

Read more