Multiple Class-Action Suits Filed Against Apple for Secretly Slowing Down Phones

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against tech giant Apple in various federal courts across the United States.

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Some of the lawsuits seek unspecified damages while others want reimbursement. Several of the complaints also sought court orders to bar Apple from altering the iPhone's computer speeds or forcing the company to inform their users in future instances.

Class-action suits were filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois. The lawsuits came after the company admitted to slowing down the performance older iPhone models.

“If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple’s upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud,” Rory Van Loo, a consumer technology law professor said.

Last week, the company acknowledged that operating system updates released since “last year” for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature “to smooth out” power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge.

Apple also said phones that were not updated were designed to shut down to prevent components from being destroyed.

An analysis performed by Primate Labs identified irregularities in processing speed and concluded that a software change was the likely cause of the issues.

“Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement for all affected iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect,” according to the complaint.

Haaretz reported that a similar case was lodged in an Israeli court on Monday.

Australian law firm Shine Lawyers' Jan Saddler said Apple could be slapped with additional global lawsuits, considering the company misled millions of consumers worldwide into believing that their iPhones were malfunctioning, causing them to upgrade to newer and more costly devices.