Apple will reportedly pay up to $95 (about Rs. 9,000) per eligible consumer as compensation, subject to the approval of the district court judge.
iPhone 16 Pro Max was launched globally in September 2024
Apple launched the iPhone 16 series in September 2024 with the Cupertino-based tech giant's first smartphones to ship with its “Apple Intelligence” suite of tools, a term used by the company instead of artificial intelligence (AI). The tech giant also announced that the 2023-launched iPhone 15 Pro series will also get support for its new AI-powered functionalities. However, last year, a number of class action lawsuits by iPhone owners were reportedly filed against Apple for over-committing and under-delivering on its AI promise. Now, the company has reportedly reached an agreement to pay compensation to millions of affected consumers.
According to fresh court filings seen by The New York Times, Apple has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit, agreeing to pay $250 million (about Rs. 2,367 crore) in compensation to a select group of iPhone owners in the US, who claimed that the tech giant misled them about their handset's AI capabilities. The Tim Cook-led company could reportedly pay up to $95 (about Rs. 9,000) per consumer.
Owners of iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, along with owners of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, who bought their handset between June 2024 and March 2025, will be eligible to receive compensation from Apple.
The lawsuits against the tech giant were filed last year and were later consolidated into a class action lawsuit by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the report added.
While a settlement has been reached between the plaintiffs and Apple, it reportedly only resolves a “handful” of the lawsuits. Moreover, the agreement is currently between the consumers and Apple, and a district court judge has yet to reportedly approve the same.
Introduced first during the WWDC 2024, most of the AI features remain elusive for several months, while a revamped version of the company's Siri AI-powered voice assistant isn't expected to arrive until later this year. After seemingly falling behind in the AI race, Apple started relying on other companies to offer AI-powered features on the latest iPhone models. Currently, its smartphones redirect users to OpenAI's ChatGPT for complex queries.
On January 13, the company announced that it had entered a multi-year deal with Google to bring the Mountain View-based tech giant's Gemini AI models and cloud technology to power Apple's future foundation AI models.
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