Two Aussie Law Firms Wanna Help You Sue Apple For Slowing Your Old iPhone

Apple‘s been in some hot soup recently, admitting to intentionally slowing down older iPhones with iOS updates. The company has since apologised, but that’s not stopping people around the world suing the shit out of them, and now Aussies are getting involved in the action.

While Apple says its intentions were good – older iPhones (6, 6S, SE and 7) were throttled so that their ageing batteries could cope – folks everywhere are pissed off at the lack of transparency surrounding the forced performance drop, arguing that the changes coaxed them into upgrading when they could have just replaced the battery.

Part of Apple’s aforementioned apology includes a dramatic drop in the price of replacement batteries from $US79 to $US29 in the US.

Queensland-based law firm, Shine Lawyers, is thinking about launching its own class action, asking Australians who’ve been affected by the bung updates to step forward.

“In Australia, we will be looking at a class action for strict product liability, negligence, breach of warranty, and a violation of consumer trust,” Shine Lawyers class action expert, Jan Saddler told Business Insider“There was no express consent among iPhone users to have their phones slowed down.”

Nothing official is going ahead right now, but Saddler reckons they’ll have a decision on the lawsuit early this year. “[Apple] misled millions of consumers globally into believing that their iPhones were malfunctioning, causing them to upgrade to newer and more costly devices,” she said.

No one seems to be able to put a concrete number on the compensation that would come out of legal proceedings against the company, but those who upgraded as a result of their slowing device could seek compensation for the amount they paid.

“Consumers may not be aware or may not have agreed to purchase a phone that may slow down or not perform how it should after updating the software,” a spokesman from Bannister Law – another firm jumping on the class action bandwagon – said.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see what the outcome of the lawsuit will be, should they go ahead with it.


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