Apple (AAPL -2.41%) has settled a series of lawsuits over its practice of slowing down older iPhones, agreeing to pay up to $500 million to impacted consumers.
Citing the preliminary class-action lawsuit settlement, which was made public late last week, Reuters reported Apple will pay each consumer $25 per iPhone.
The minimum total payout would be $310 million but it could rise to $500 million depending on the number of iPhones that are covered in the settlement. As it stands the settlement reached Friday covers iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus that ran on Apple’s iOS 11.2 or later. The phones had to be in use prior to December 17, 2017.
The offer still needs the nod of San Jose, California U.S. District Judge Edward Davila. Lawyers on the cases are reportedly looking for $93 million of the $310 million settlement payout and $1.5 million on top of that for expenses.
Apple denied any wrongdoing in the settlement but opted to end the litigation due to the cost and time it would take to try the case in court.
The case stemmed from consumer complaints that their iPhones were slower after Apple installed software updates on the devices. Consumers assumed the batteries were getting too old and would either purchase new batteries or replace their iPhones altogether.
Users discovered Apple’s new iOS limited processing speeds to reduce temperature and performance issues with the devices. But Apple kept that secret, prompting the lawsuit. Apple did lower the price of the replacement batteries from $79 to $29 and apologized. But that wasn't enough to appease angry customers and regulators. In addition to the class-action lawsuit, Apple was slapped with a €25 million fine by French regulators.