Attorneys General unveil $113M settlement with Apple over iPhone throttling

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, along with a bipartisan coalition of more than 30 other attorneys general, have announced a $113 million settlement with Apple Inc. regarding Apple’s 2016 decision to throttle consumers’ iPhone speeds in order to address unexpected shutdowns in some iPhones.

Michigan will get more than $2.6 million as part of the settlement.

Based on the multistate investigation, the attorneys general allege that Apple discovered battery issues were leading to unexpected shutdowns in iPhones.

Rather than disclosing these issues or replacing batteries, however, Apple concealed the issues from consumers.

Apple’s concealment ultimately led to a software update in December 2016 that reduced iPhone performance in an effort to keep the phones from unexpectedly shutting down.

The attorneys general allege that Apple’s concealment of the battery issues and decision to throttle the performance of consumers’ iPhones allowed the company to profit from selling additional iPhones to consumers whose phones had been intentionally slowed by Apple.

“Apple knowingly misled consumers and instead of disclosing the issue or even allowing simple battery replacements, Apple instead chose to implement a ‘fix’ that only created further issues for users and allowed the company to reap financial rewards of that deceit,” Nessel said.