Apple Hit by Lawsuits Over 'Feature' That Slowed Down iPhones With Older Batteries

Apple on Wednesday had "acknowledged" that it was indeed throttling iPhone performance to preserve battery life. Following its admission, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the Cupertino giant in Los Angeles, accusing it of causing users to suffer, and hurting the value of older Apple devices. Separately, five users have filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago to the same end.

Stefan Bogdanovich, from Los Angeles, filed this first class action lawsuit, reports TMZ. According to the report, Bogdanovich claims that Apple's tactic to slow down performance has caused losses to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users. The plaintiff, in his argument, mentions that the decision taken by Apple was "never requested or agreed upon." Additionally, he remarked that the decision was a concealed ploy for Apple to market its products every year.

The lawsuit demands Apple to stop these practices and also shell out a penalty for damages.

"Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future," said Apple in the acknowledgement on Thursday.

Apple's acknowledgement had come as a result of Primate Labs' report on Geekbench data that showed slower performance in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s, when aged for more than a year. Geekbench is owned by Primate Labs.

A second lawsuit against Apple, as reported by Chicago Sun Times, has also come into the limelight. Five Apple customers in Chicago have filed a federal lawsuit alleging "deceptive, immoral and unethical" practices that Apple has been carrying out. The lawsuit claims that these practices allegedly violate consumer protection laws in the state and the country.

Attorney James Vlahakis, on the Chicago federal lawsuit, also reiterated Stefan Bogdanovich's point that this strategy is used as a marketing ploy by Apple to sell iPhone variants each year.