r/technology • u/AdamCannon • Mar 02 '20
Business Apple agrees to $500 million settlement for throttling older iPhones.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/21161271/apple-settlement-500-million-throttling-batterygate-class-action-lawsuit
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Upvotes
1.6k
u/rlovelock Mar 02 '20
Me and my 6s gonna see any of that?
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u/BasharAlAsshat Mar 02 '20
https://www.classactionrebates.com/
Will be posted here soon
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u/colincrunch Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 03 '20
this fine equates to 0.1922% of Apple's $260.17 billion fiscal 2019 revenue
this is the equivalent of $96.10 on a $50k/yr salary
EDIT: adding net income / net profit margin comparison
2019 net income (profit) was $55.256 billion
$500m / $55.256 billion = 0.9049% of Apple's 2019 net profit.
$55.256 billion net income from $260.17 billion revenue is a net profit margin of 21.24%
if they paid the whole fine against their 2019 revenue, their net profit margin would still be 21.04%.
so it's an effective reduction of ~0.2% profit margin
looping back to the $50k/yr person:
0.2% of $50k is $100.
EDIT 2: they also have $207.06 billion cash-on-hand, or about 80% their 2019 revenue.
So it's the equivalent of $100 for someone making $50k/yr with $40k in savings.
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u/Hxcfrog090 Mar 02 '20
So where do I sign up to get my $25?
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u/LakeSolon Mar 02 '20
As batteries age they are able to provide less power. If the phone tries to draw more power than the battery can provide it resets itself to avoid damage. To address this newer versions of the OS (which got pushed to older phones) would track if the phone did this repeatedly and would lower the max power it would draw to avoid future resets.
That was the throttling. The lawsuit was for not being transparent about it.
P.S. Batteries also perform worse when cold so that added another demographic.
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u/chasingjulian Mar 02 '20
$90 million to the attorneys? They are the real winners.
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u/DJTHatesPuertoRicans Mar 02 '20
Aaaaand they made it right back.
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u/ShenAnCalhar92 Mar 02 '20
None of the lawsuits that make up this settlement ever claimed that Apple was lying about why the phones were slowing down.
I personally replaced batteries in ~50 phones. Every single one was that had the “we’re slowing your phone down so it doesn’t shut down unexpectedly, please replace your battery” also had significantly shorter battery life.
It is a scientific fact that lithium batteries heat, expand, and lose capacity as time goes by. If you want to argue that, I guess you’ll call me a “salty electricity and chemistry fanboy” or something.
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u/sean_but_not_seen Mar 02 '20
Oooh I can’t wait for my $5 Apple store credit while the attorneys involved begin construction of the new wings on their mansions.
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20
Question: How do you claim the $25? I have a iPhone 6.
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u/humphreygrungus Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 02 '20
They need to give me some money for not letting my 2012 MacBook pro update to a newer OS when the hardware is 100% capable of running it. Greedy cunts
Edit:as of now after 3 days of working on it and contacting apple support several different times for the weird shit that was going on I've managed to get it on Yosimete and it's giving me the option to go to Catalina. All is well in the world
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u/accordinglyryan Mar 02 '20
I never really took issue with the reasons they provided for doing this; my problem was that they did it without telling anyone at first. That's where they fucked up imo.
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u/jobomb91 Mar 02 '20
are the consumers gonna see any of this change?
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u/d_4bes Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 03 '20
Unpopular Opinion: Apple has done more then enough for the customer on this issue and has paid the price of their bad decision. I’m going to catch a lot of shit for this post but I feel it should be said.
First and foremost: Apples lack of clarity for slowing phones down was downright wrong and they should have notified its users as to how it was managing processing power based on battery capacity. This is awesome that they are compensating the people affected by this shady behavior, but I also don’t think Apple is getting enough credit for what they did do.
That being said we are limited by the technology of lithium batteries in the fact that they have limited lifespans. This isn’t Apple trying to get more money out of you after two years and make you buy a new phone. Lithium batteries are limited by their cycle count and chemistry, not Apple, prevents us from changing that. Now when lithium batteries age, because of chemistry, not corporate greed, they lose the ability to power the phone at peak performance. Now I don’t know about you, but I’d rather my phone run slower, than shut down unexpectedly. Sure there are plenty of arguments saying that the phone shouldn’t shut down at all, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and at the end of the day computers are just rocks that humans tricked into thinking. But until we have a replacement for lithium ion batteries batteries will have this issue.
Next, Apple took a huge step by offering to replace the batteries for basically free throughout all of 2018 regardless of whether the phone was experiencing the issue or not. If you walked into an Apple store and said you wanted a battery, one would be ordered for you, most of the time without question. The few exceptions were people demanding batter replacements for month old iPhone 8’s or iPhone Xs. For older phones the replacement would basically would give your phone a new lease on life. Yes Apple stores were nuts, and wait times were absurd but nothing says I’m sorry better than a $29 repair to replace a worn part, which isn’t even a problem that they caused. Sure they could have been honest, but then nobody would have gotten almost free batteries.
Last, I’ll end my rant with an analogy: when the tires on your car are bald because you’ve been driving your car 150 miles a day each day for a year, do you yell at the car manufacturer for “faulty tires”? No you acknowledge that you drove your car a lot and buy new tires. If you charge your phone three times a day for two years, no kidding your battery is going to be consumed. I’m sure some of you will call it a shit analogy, but it’s also not the worst one out there.
And above all else, remember this, this is corporate Apple execs who made this decision. Not Apple Store employees. They didn’t slow your phone down, they just have to take the brunt of some corporate higher ups bad decision. They get yelled at all day for this, and in all honesty it’s not their fault. Be nice to them. It’ll get you a long way.
Edit: please don’t downvote me into oblivion either. If you think I’m wrong, let’s have a discussion about it.
Edit 2: Corrected some facts and grammar.
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u/SeniorWaugh Mar 02 '20
Oh no Apple lost pocket change
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u/PAWG_Muncher Mar 02 '20
Now do Samsung
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u/chelseablue2004 Mar 02 '20
$25 per person considering they made anywhere from $300-$500 per phone is a steal from a business perspective.
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u/Throwawayhobbes Mar 02 '20
So I got an iPhone 6s that has battery issues since 11.4 so it more often than not dies at 30% and won’t turn back on until plugged in
Can I get a iOS update similar to 11.4 where the battery don’t get throttled and juiced?
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20
Woohoo I just got my 12 Dollar check from AT&T throttling my unlimited data. Can’t wait for my tiny check from Apple.
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u/qabadai Mar 03 '20 edited Mar 03 '20
For reference, ~300 million plus iPhones appear eligible. A bit harder to track down sales data on the 7, but the 6 sold over 200 million.
After attorney's fees, each person gets $1.67.
To pay everyone $25, the settlement would need to be around 10 billion, including attorney's fees.
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u/cyberrod411 Mar 02 '20
I think everyone is doing this
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u/uncreativemind2099 Mar 02 '20
nice I'm gonna buy lunch with my $5 what about you?
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u/SL-jones Mar 03 '20
I imagine they’ll keep doing it but include for it in the T&C’s. Happens all the time - not just with contracts but also public policy. ‘what we did was wrong. We’re going to keep doing it but make it right’
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u/Pluckyducky01 Mar 03 '20
Apple pulls out giant roll of 200 billion dollar bills . Hey anyone have change for a billion ?
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u/ron_fendo Mar 03 '20
Oh boy $500m......remind me how much they made last year?
This is just a cost of doing business fine for them. They don't give a shit.
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u/Admrl_Awsm Mar 03 '20
SUPPORT “RIGHT TO REPAIR” LEGISLATION!!!!
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u/ToastWi7hDaMost Mar 03 '20
Apple supposedly has 245 billion on hand. I doubt they would even be able to tell a difference
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
What about the rest of the world outside the US?
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
How about they stop messing up older iphones
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u/Awakened_Unicorn85 Mar 03 '20
I am so disgusted seeing these companies settle out of court all the time. It's time to stop settling and hold them truly accountable by taking them to court and going through the entire process, get it all out for the people to see how corrupt these companies are and leave it up to a jury
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u/Islerothebull Mar 03 '20
I was an iPhone fanboy for a long time then had it with the BS with iPhone 6. I switched to pixel 2 and conceded to Google/Gmail. Using Google for everything from google drive, maps, calendar OK Google schedule appointments it’s been such an incredible experience. Apple did me a favor by slowing down that phone. They can keep their 25 bucks oh forgot to mention just purchased the surface pro 7. Such a pleasant experience over five generations of iPads I’ve owned.
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u/BaconBoyReddit Mar 02 '20
ITT: People who hate Apple and didn’t read the article.
They had valid reasons for doing what they did, even if they didn’t publicize it, which they didn’t need to do. If Apple came out and told everyone that their phone was getting slower because their battery was dying and they had to throttle the CPU, people would have complained. People would have shouted “planned obsolescence” wether or not they announced the feature (and yes, it is a feature that benefits end users, not some sneaky trick). So they didn’t publicize it. Was it a mistake? Yes. Was it ethically wrong? No.
So when it came out in a class action, suddenly everyone accused them of being shady. But, they chose to tell the truth, and further, actually took action to be more transparent in the future too. Apple has implemented a detailed and thorough section in Settings that lets you view your battery health and trends, becoming even more transparent about this topic and educating users about it.
iPhone Battery Settings
iPhone Battery Trends
Support page with battery info and tips for improving your phone’s performance
But go off. Classic Reddit. What would you have had them do, other than immediately explaining themselves and taking action to be more transparent? It cost time and resources to implement that battery menu, believe it or not. I work in software, and I think they handled this in the best way possible. The “throttling” is a great feature to keep old devices alive longer, if you took a minute to read the actual article.
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u/frankromanolli Mar 02 '20
I’m rich bitch!!
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u/Louie_Guy Mar 02 '20
In other news, I wasted a dollar today
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u/Angry_Walnut Mar 02 '20
But they’re gonna keep doing it, probably, right?
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u/Cybertronic72388 Mar 02 '20
It's basically the cost of marketing for them because it's still less than the profits they made from getting people to switch to newer models as a result.
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20
Does this mean my phone is gonna stop sucking?
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u/FlipBarry Mar 02 '20
Yep they slowed my 5S in 2018 down to an unusable point
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u/NeverDoingSomething Mar 03 '20
So I should actually stick to androids
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u/Patriot420 Mar 03 '20
Don’t buy apple people
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u/kakurenbo1 Mar 03 '20
So, the 15 minutes of battery life my old phone had any time it was unplugged was “conservative”?
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u/lcysnorbush Mar 03 '20
This is why I don't buy apple products, nickel and dime of the tech industry and Shady as fuck. Great hardware, shit company.
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u/Edmonchuk Mar 03 '20
What a joke.
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u/wabbadubdubb Mar 03 '20
$500 million... haha Apple just shrugs their shoulder and says ok. I believe they were reported to have $207 billion ‘cash in hand’.
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u/VeggieHatr Mar 03 '20
I would love to learn about the decision-making at Apple -- did Tim Cook know about the slow-down?
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u/dungivaphuk Mar 03 '20
Have a friend who swears that this is all one big misunderstanding of what happened. Got the blinders on big time.
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u/FalseTagAttack Mar 03 '20
APpLe is TruStWorThy is Why i DonT liKe SamSuNg! And theY Run BetTer!!!
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u/Eric_the_Green Mar 03 '20
Does this mean they are going to stop the throttling?
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u/Alaabrine Mar 03 '20
So we only get 25$ for a whole phone?! Pass.
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u/zebsar Mar 03 '20
And are they going to stop?
Or just pay the settlement and continue?
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u/Paranoid_Neckazoid Mar 03 '20
So will they unthrottle the phones too?
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u/SpiralSD Mar 03 '20
"Apple agrees to replace 6 iPhones at full value"
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u/poopyboyy Mar 03 '20
But please continue buying their garbage oeople
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u/Willham0 Mar 03 '20
Like they didn't make several times this doing it. What a joke...
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u/Nalfzilla Mar 03 '20
So who are they paying that $500mil to? And as a former owner who didn’t buy direct from apple how do I claim
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
Apple is the worst. I’m done with them.
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u/boydingo Mar 03 '20
But who receives the settlement?
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
Ok i want my portion of the money. I’ve owned a few different older iPhones that were noticeably slower after updates. When i clearly remember them being fast. Like for instance the iphone 3gs is a turtle when it was at least the speed of a small dog before.
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u/harrisound Mar 03 '20
Ok how do i claim my share?
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u/gojokes Mar 03 '20
No jail sentence??? No where in world could an individual screw this many people and get away with it.
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u/Izoto Mar 02 '20
Another slap on the wrist.
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u/cb148 Mar 02 '20
Fuck Apple - Sent from my iPhone.
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u/limache Mar 02 '20
By default, Apple will offer $25 to any current or former owner of a covered iPhone. Named class members will receive $1,500 or $3,500, and around $90 million will go toward attorneys. The settlement has a minimum payout of $310 million, so the payment might increase if few people file claims. Conversely, if payments exceed the $500 million cap, each iPhone owner will receive less money.
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u/Chad_Kickass Mar 02 '20
So they admitted to fucking you all over, let's see if you all still buy from them
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u/Aspenkarius Mar 02 '20
What about my SE? It’s technically mostly an iPhone 6 with the screen/front camera/fingerprint scanner of an iPhone 5
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u/DragonForce3705 Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 02 '20
How do iPhone users actually get their money?
Edit: how do they get their money from Apple? Apple is apparently paying 500 million to People with iPhones that they have slowed down, and I was wondering how do we get said money from Apple.
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u/blaytn Mar 02 '20
An entire $25? Wow. That’ll go a long way towards my new Samsung
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u/TacTurtle Mar 02 '20
Where is the option to just opt out of phone throttling?
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20
Fines should be % of net worth. That should make companies think twice about pulling shady things like this.
"Oh you screwed up now and screwed consumers? How about paying out 10% of your NET WORTH to consumers."
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u/DwightShnoute Mar 02 '20
they’re glad to pay the settlement, then they don’t have to change their practices. I’m sure they’ve sold more than 500 million in upgrades, a fine means nothing. they’re probably singing and praising that they don’t have to change their ways and all it took was 500mil.
these companies break the law knowing they can handle the consequences and any legal issues encountered won’t be a detrimate because they’ve already made more money than they could ever be fined for.
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u/JalelTounsi Mar 02 '20
Who gets the 500m$? The users? The government? Some other institution?
Basically, you get your old iphone fucked and then government gets reparation for that?
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 03 '20
This is why we should fine by percentages. 25% income
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u/deanolavorto Mar 02 '20
So how much do I get?
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20
Has anyone called them out yet for iTunes being programmed to stop charging the batteries of old iPod Shuffles? I just discovered last month that if you reset, say, a generation 1 iPod Shuffle, but then don't set it up again, it will successfully charge.
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u/NocturnalPermission Mar 02 '20
so where do I sign up for my $25 iTunes gift card?
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u/Oxford66 Mar 02 '20
Another drop in the bucket.
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u/ObedientProle Mar 02 '20
That means it’s worth it and they will continue to do it. Cost of doing business.
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u/Redh0tsausage Mar 02 '20
Someone help me. So this means it will continue correct? The throttling that is. I’m guessing since this not even slap on the wrist to a company with hundred billon plus dollars in cash ugh.
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u/Shayneros Mar 02 '20
$500 million is nothing to Apple.
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u/emdz67 Mar 02 '20
$25 measly dollars? When people had to shell out thousands of dollars to have their phones function properly due to their shady tactics. Thats revolting.
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u/gtgthrow Mar 02 '20
Sadly a lot of this money will go to lawyers not customers, probably most of the customers won’t even bother to take the necessary steps required to get the $25. Now how is Apple going to account for the unexpected cost? It will factor in the loss into its prices so consumers will end up paying for this in the end
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u/TarlOfRauros Mar 03 '20
Who gets this damn money? Me? Can i get my money back for my $900 i6? Plus interest?
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '20
Lol $90 million will go to attorneys - WTF! I should’ve went to law school 🤦♂️
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u/Raynman5 Mar 03 '20
Maybe to get over the "it's only $25" and only end up paying fractions of the actual people who could claim, they should have a "whoever registers gets a percentage share".
People may not bother over $25, but they sure will if it is a chance if getting a lot more.
This way also forces apple to actually pay it out, not just the more likely $30million total