[ad_1]
Apple agreed to pay $ 113 million (approximately Rs 840 million) to settle a dispute with more than 30 US states over slowing the performance of older iPhones to manage battery power.
The latest “Batterygate” deal will divide the deal between California and 33 other states, according to a statement from state attorney general Xavier Becerra.
The settlement resolves complaints that the tech giant made misrepresentations about iPhone batteries and software updates that sped up processing performance to manage insufficient battery power, according to the state official.
“Apple withheld information about its batteries that slowed down the iPhone’s performance, all while passing it off as an upgrade,” Becerra said.
“This type of behavior hurts consumers’ pockets and limits their ability to make informed purchases. Today’s agreement ensures that consumers will have access to the information they need to make an informed decision when buying and using Apple products.”
The settlement resolves complaints about Apple’s iPhone 6 and 7-generation phones that, according to the states’ complaint, were likely to lose performance.
Apple did not immediately comment on the matter.
In court documents, the iPhone maker said it accepted the payment “solely for the purpose of reaching an agreement,” without admitting any wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, Apple agreed to pay up to $ 500 million (roughly Rs. 3.7 billion rupees) to settle a class action lawsuit over the same issue.
In December 2017, Apple admitted that the iOS software was modified to reduce the performance of older iPhone models whose battery life was deteriorating to prevent phones from shutting down spontaneously.
Critics accused Apple of surreptitiously forcing users to buy phones earlier than necessary, and the protest forced Apple to update its software and offer deep discounts on battery replacements.
Apple also settled a case with the French consumer regulator to pay 25 million euros (approximately 200 million rupees) in a related case.
French prosecutors opened an investigation in January 2018 at the request of the Halt Planned Obsolescence (HOP) association.
Will Apple Silicon Lead to Affordable MacBooks in India? We talked about this on Orbital, our weekly tech podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
