Another day, another Apple lawsuit (this time, from Texas)
Things still aren't looking great for Apple. Three individuals in Texas have filed a class action lawsuit against the company for purposefully slowing down older phones.
The suit is the first of its kind to come from Texas, reports Patently Apple, and was filed on behalf of all owners of the iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, or iPhone 7 Plus who have updated to iOS 10 or beyond.
The individuals, Mark Miller, Chris Spearman, and Craig Stanford, of McKinney, Dallas, and Grand Saline respectively, have filed the suit on three counts: fraudulent omission, negligent misrepresentation/omission, and tortious interference with property rights.
The suit begins as follows:
Apple promised that its recent iOS 10 and iOS 11 software updates to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 models would improve those devices' performance and it strongly encouraged its customers to accept those updates. But Apple didn't tell its customers that it had intentionally designed those software updates to slow the devices' processing speed to correct a battery defect. Apple then happily took its customers' money when the customers, dissatisfied with their now-slower devices, purchased new and more expensive iPhones. Apple came clean only this month under public pressure, admitting its software updates slowed processor speed. Now Plaintiffs and Class Members must either purchase new phones for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars or continue to struggle with their slowed devices.
Apple has faced similar lawsuits for the past week, after the company confirmed reports that it was intentionally slowing down iPhones to preserve battery life. The first two lawsuits, in Illinois and California, were filed Dec. 21.
The new Texas lawsuit joins over a dozen other civil suits and criminal charge based on the same issue, from northern and central California, Chicago, New York, France, South Korea, and Israel. 9to5Mac reports there are at least 15 separate cases related to this problem.
Apple has issued an apology for slowing down the phones, but that clearly wasn't enough to quell the angry masses.
Topics Apple iPhone New York City
Monica wrote for Mashable's Tech section with a focus on retail, internet of things, and the intersections of technology and social justice. She holds a degree in creative writing from Brown University, and has previously written for Dow Jones Media, the New York Post, Yahoo Finance, and others. In her free time, she can be found attempting to cook Asian food, buying board games, and looking for new hobbies.
