Apple faces $2 bln UK suit over phone 'throttling'
STORY: Apple faces a $2 billion legal battle in the UK.
The tech giant on Tuesday (May 2) urged a legal tribunal to reject a lawsuit accusing it of hiding defective batteries in millions of iPhones.
Plaintiffs say Apple quietly limited the performance of some handsets to hide the battery issues.
That’s a practice known as ‘throttling’.
Apple calls the charges ‘baseless’, and strongly denies all but a few limited battery problems.
The company says a power management update introduced in 2017 was meant to help older batteries, and had little impact on performance.
It says it has apologized to customers who were hit by battery problems, and offered replacements where appropriate.
London’s Competition Appeals Tribunal now must decide whether to allow a full trial.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs points to Apple’s 2020 settlement over a battery case in the U.S. as one precedent.
He also cited a 2019 promise by the firm to be more open with UK watchdogs about battery health issues.
