Apple Shells Out $3.4 Million to Chileans to Settle Planned Obsolescence Lawsuit

Apple will pay $3.4 million in Chile to settle a lawsuit that accused the Cupertino company of programming a limited lifespan into some of its products to force consumers to upgrade.

iPhone slow
150,000 iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE owners sued Apple over the same "iPhone Slowdown" issue that Apple has been battling since 2017. Registered participants in Chile can get a maximum of $50.

Apple in 2017 released iOS 10.2.1 with a feature that throttled the performance of older iPhones with degrading batteries to prevent device shutdowns at peak usage times. Apple did not make it clear that mitigating these shutdowns would require device performance to be scaled back, which led to significant consumer upset and a series of lawsuits that Apple is still dealing with today.

The iOS 10.2.1 update and subsequent updates that have introduced measures to preserve battery life are aimed at making iPhones last as long as possible even when battery health declines, but Apple has had a tough time convincing the world that it's not crippling iPhones to make people spend more money.

Apple offered a worldwide battery replacement program with affordable battery upgrades for devices with degraded batteries and it also introduced new battery health features in iOS.

Apple has faced similar lawsuits in Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Apple has already settled a class action lawsuit in the United States, shelling out between $310 and $500 million, and a state-led investigation into throttling that cost it $113 million.

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Top Rated Comments

IG88 Avatar
59 months ago

So stupid. I hate how countries like Russia, China, and Chile are pushing Apple around.
Apple could have been forthcoming and open with the throttling from day 1, instead of obscuring it from users until they got caught.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
timborama Avatar
59 months ago

"Sorry for providing a software fix for preventing shutdowns due to old aging batteries"
You’ve completely misled the point. It’s not the fact they did it, it’s that they didn’t notify customers about this fact.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
carrrrrlos Avatar
59 months ago
Nobody wins here but the lawyers, who now have a new yacht named “Slow down and Chile”
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
59 months ago

Apple could have been forthcoming and open with the throttling from day 1, instead of obscuring it from users until they got caught.
THIS! Apple got caught... and 3.4M$ is not even a rounding error for Apple ...
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
59 months ago
How does limited lifespan equate to a phone running longer, even when under power management? And how does that equate to planned obsolescence?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
59 months ago
Regarding the performance throttling when having 'old' batteries, yes I agree this is a form of planned obsolescence, even though the intention behind this is not to lower performance, it's to fix stability problems.

But other than that?
Apple was the only one on the market to support their phones with major updates for 5 years, and now Apple is even more alone in supporting their phones for 6 years. I mean, the iPhone 6s runs iOS 14 perfectly and it's been released in September 2015. Who else does that?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)