UK iPhone users could be entitled to hundreds of pounds in payouts over claims Apple has slowed down phones’ battery life

BRITS using iPhones could be entitled to hundreds of pounds in payouts after claims Apple deliberately slowed down batteries.

A court is told the billionaire tech company misled users about an upgrade that actually slowed down iPhone batteries.

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And 25million UK users could potentially be entitled to hundreds of pounds if a consumer champion wins a legal claim filed today, reports The times.

Justin Gutmann, an activist who used to work for Citizens Advice, has filed a £768million lawsuit alleging Apple abused its market dominance by secretly interfering with iPhones.

According to the report, the tech giant has “throttled” ten different models of the device to disguise overcharged batteries and avoid costly recalls and repairs.

Models from the iPhone 6 to X are said to have been affected.

Gutmann alleges that Apple “misled customers about a power management tool that slowed down devices, leading some users to upgrade early or pay for a spare battery.”

Gutmann’s lawyers have estimated that if successful, the lawsuit would result in UK consumers with select iPhone models being awarded between £30 and £60 each for substandard performance.

Many other users would be entitled to payouts of hundreds of pounds each if they can prove they replaced batteries or the
entire device because of the perceived degenerating performance.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple, which is valued at approximately £2.32 trillion, abused its market dominance to engage in “exploitative and unfair business practices”.

Gutmann’s legal team will tell the court that expert analysis found that the devices “slowed down by up to 58 percent after installation [a] Throttle software update”.

The activist has claimed Apple introduced the tool to hide a bug that was causing iPhone batteries to fail to handle updated processing demands.

Apple said it has “never – and never would – do anything to intentionally shorten the lifespan of an Apple product or degrade user experience in order to drive customer upgrades.”