Apple Battery Lawsuit: Settlements, Payouts, and Total Cost

The Apple battery lawsuit refers to a wave of legal actions against Apple after it was caught quietly slowing down older iPhones through software updates without telling customers. In the United States, Apple agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a consolidated class action, and eligible claimants received about $92.17 per device when payments went out beginning January 5, 2024.¹ Apple separately paid $113 million to a coalition of state attorneys general, and further cases in Europe, Canada, and the UK have added hundreds of millions more to the tab.

What Apple Actually Did

Lithium-ion batteries lose the ability to deliver sudden bursts of power as they age. By 2016, iPhone 6 and 6s owners were reporting that their phones shut down without warning under load. Apple’s fix, delivered in iOS 10.2.1 in January 2017, was a “performance management” feature that quietly capped CPU and GPU speeds on the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, and SE whenever the software detected a degraded battery. iOS 11.2 extended the same throttling to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in December 2017.²

Apple did not disclose the throttling. Release notes said nothing about it, and users saw only the symptoms: slower app launches, lower frame rates, dimmer screens, quieter speakers. Benchmark data published by Primate Labs founder John Poole on December 18, 2017 exposed the pattern, showing that iPhone 6s scores scattered wildly on iOS 10.2.1 in a way that tracked with battery age.³ Apple acknowledged the practice two days later and apologized on December 28, saying it had “never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product.”⁴

Apple also cut the price of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29 for iPhone 6 and later models throughout 2018, and released iOS 11.3 in March 2018 with a Battery Health screen that showed maximum capacity and let users switch performance management off.²

The US Class Action Settlement

Dozens of consumer lawsuits filed in the weeks after the December 2017 revelations were consolidated into In re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litigation, Case No. 5:18-md-02827-EJD, before Judge Edward J. Davila in the Northern District of California.⁵ Plaintiffs alleged violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, California’s Unfair Competition Law, and trespass to chattels.⁶

Apple agreed to pay a minimum of $310 million and up to $500 million. Individual claimants were promised $25 per device. The eligible class included owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus who had run the affected iOS versions before December 21, 2017.¹

The settlement was approved, appealed, sent back for reconsideration, approved again on February 17, 2023, and became effective on November 5, 2023 after the Ninth Circuit dismissed a final appeal.⁵ Payments started going out on January 5, 2024. About 3 million claims were filed, and because fewer people claimed than the maximum would have supported, each valid claimant received $92.17 rather than the originally advertised $25.¹

Can You Still Get Paid?

No. The US settlement’s claim window has closed and payments were distributed in early 2024. If you didn’t file a claim while the case was open, you’re outside the class. The settlement covered only the specific iPhone models and iOS versions listed above; newer iPhones and later throttling behavior were not part of it.

The State Attorneys General Settlement

A coalition of 34 state attorneys general plus the District of Columbia ran a separate investigation into Apple’s failure to disclose the throttling. Apple agreed on November 18, 2020 to pay $113 million to resolve it, without admitting any wrongdoing.⁷ California alone received $24.6 million.⁸

The money went to the states, not to individual iPhone owners. The lasting consumer benefit came from the injunctive terms Apple accepted:

Maintain a public webpage explaining battery management and performance throttling.
Notify consumers when an iOS update materially affects processing performance.
Display battery health information in the iPhone settings menu, including maximum capacity and service notifications.
Train consumer-facing staff on these disclosure requirements.⁸

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Apple “knowingly withheld information from consumers in an effort to sell more phones and increase profits.”⁹

Cases Outside the United States

Regulators and consumer groups abroad pursued Apple on their own theories, most often framing the conduct as planned obsolescence or misleading commercial practice.

In France, the DGCCRF found that Apple’s silence about throttling was a “misleading commercial practice by omission.” Apple accepted a €25 million settlement in early 2020 and had to post a statement about the finding on its French site for one month.¹⁰

In Italy, the competition authority AGCM fined Apple €10 million on October 24, 2018, the statutory maximum, split into two €5 million penalties for pushing iOS 10 onto iPhone 6 and 6s users without disclosing the performance risks and for failing to inform buyers about battery maintenance.¹¹

In Canada, the British Columbia Supreme Court approved a settlement of up to $14.4 million CAD in early March 2024, covering residents of all provinces except Quebec who owned the same models covered by the US case. Individual payouts ran from $17.50 to $150 CAD, and the claim deadline was September 2, 2024.¹²

The largest unresolved case is in the United Kingdom. Justin Gutmann is leading an opt-out collective action in the Competition Appeal Tribunal on behalf of roughly 24 million UK iPhone owners, alleging that Apple abused a dominant market position. The claim is valued at about £853 million.¹³ On March 11, 2026, the CAT rejected most of Apple’s attempt to have the case thrown out, though it did strike out claims covering the period after Apple introduced Battery Health in iOS 11.3.¹⁴ No trial date is set.¹⁵

Total Cost to Apple So Far

Direct legal payments and fines from the throttling controversy add up to well over $600 million, with more possible from the UK case:

Apple also felt indirect costs. The $29 battery replacement program handled roughly 11 million replacements in 2018, compared with the 1 to 2 million done in a typical year, and Tim Cook told investors that customers kept their older phones longer instead of upgrading, contributing to the revenue warning he issued in January 2019.¹⁸

1
CNET. Apple Starts Sending Out iPhone Batterygate Settlement Payments
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Apple. About Performance Management on iPhone
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Geekbench. iPhone Performance and Battery Age
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Thurrott. Apple Apologizes for Throttling iPhones, Offers $29 Replacement Batteries
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Smartphone Performance Settlement. In Re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litigation
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CPM Legal. Ninth Circuit Dismisses Appeal Allowing Historic Settlement to Be Distributed
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NPR. Apple Agrees to Pay $113 Million to Settle Batterygate Case Over iPhone Slowdowns
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California Attorney General. Attorney General Becerra Announces $113 Million Multistate Settlement Against Apple
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Illinois Attorney General. $113 Million Settlement With Apple After Slowing iPhone Performance
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TechCrunch. Apple Fined $27 Million for Throttling Old iPhones Without Telling Users
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Politico. Italy Hits Apple, Samsung With Fines Over Planned Obsolescence
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CBC. Apple Settlement Approved by British Columbia Supreme Court
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AppleInsider. iPhone Batterygate Legal Drama Isn’t Quite Done Yet
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Competition Appeal Tribunal. Gutmann v Apple Inc., Judgment on Strike Out
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Competition Appeal Tribunal. Mr Justin Gutmann v Apple Inc.
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NPR. Apple Agrees to Pay $113 Million to Settle Batterygate Case
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TechCrunch. Apple Fined $27 Million for Throttling Old iPhones
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AppleInsider. Apple Replaced 11M iPhone Batteries Under 2018 Repair Program