In the hours of Altroconsumo’s announcement ready for a class action against Apple in Italy, Euroconsumers, an EU consumer advocacy group, filed a collective legal action against Apple both in Belgium and Spain for “unfair commercial practices and misleading ”related to the iPhone performance management system introduced in iOS 10.2.1 without informing customers. Yes, it is that function that, in case of the battery not in an optimal state, limited the performance of smartphones.
Initiated by Euroconsumers, which defines itself as «The world’s leading organization of consumer clusters», the lawsuits state that the system introduced via the iOS update to preserve battery life amounts to “planned obsolescence”. The lawsuits are aimed at the owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, and 6S Plus and claim that Apple has engaged in unfair and misleading business practices. The lawsuits demand compensation of at least 60 euros on average for each affected consumer in Belgium and Spain.
Apple has introduced power management features on older iPhones to prevent unexpected shutdowns during peak power draw periods on devices with degraded batteries. In other words, when iPhone detected a degraded battery, it limited the performance of the terminal. The problem lies in the fact that the user was absolutely unaware of this mechanism, therefore led to buy a new smartphone, rather than replace the battery. And in fact, although introduced in early 2017, power management features weren’t advertised by Apple until late 2017, leading many customers to feel duped by Apple.
Apple apologized for not initially explaining how the health of the battery could affect performance, and has since implemented a policy that has offered a full-year replacement of the $ 29 battery.
Earlier this year, the company also agreed to pay up to $ 500 million to settle a long-standing lawsuit in the United States accusing the company of “secretly restricting” older iPhone models. Euroconsumers refers to the latter agreement and claims to have two identical causes planned for Italy and Portugal.
Consumers are increasingly troubled by the fact that products wear out too quickly, the iPhone 6 models are a very concrete example of this. Not only does it cause frustration and financial damage, it is also utterly irresponsible from an environmental point of view. Consumers want to be treated with respect, demand fair compensation and more sustainable phones. Euroconsumers is sending a clear message to Apple that planned obsolescence can no longer be accepted
