British class action against Apple for slowing down older iPhones may proceed

The British class action against Apple for slowing down certain older iPhones may continue. The British Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled this out on Wednesday. Apple asked the court to dismiss the case.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal rules that the class action lawsuit, initiated by Justin Gutmann, meets the requirements for a class action lawsuit. The CAT states, among other things, that Gutmann is suitable to be authorized as a class representative. With the ruling, the case can officially be heard in court, despite objections from Apple.

The CAT does judge that the case still lacks ‘clarity and specificity’ and that this must be resolved before an actual trial takes place. Gutmann may also have to adjust his arrangement for financing the lawsuit. The British Supreme Court ruled in July that banned many such financing agreements have been declared illegal.

Apple referred in response to Reuters to a previously released statement about the lawsuit: “We have never and would never do anything to intentionally shorten the life of an Apple product or degrade the user experience to incentivize customer upgrades.”

Gutmann filed his class action lawsuit against Apple last year. According to the complaint, Apple has released updates in the past that have slowed down several older iPhone models. The tech giant acknowledged in 2017 that it has distributed updates that slow down smartphones with an old battery, to prevent them from suddenly failing. This concerned the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and the first SE.

The issue has previously led to several investigations and damages, including a settlement of up to $500 million in the United States. Consumer organizations in Europe also wanted compensation and in France the company was fined 25 million euros. If Gutmann wins his case, every affected user in the UK will automatically be entitled to financial compensation. This includes more than twenty million iPhone users in the UK.