November 18, 2020 – Apple, Inc., and a coalition of 30 attorneys general, including South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, reached a $113 million settlement for iPhone throttling.

Back in 2016, Apple made a decision to “throttle” iPhone speeds in order to address unexpected shutdown in some phones. Rather than disclosing the situation, Apple hid the issues from consumers, officials say.

“This scheme hit iPhone customers with phones that worked slowly or shut down unexpectedly and caused a lot of people to shell out money for new phones when they should not have needed to,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Having your phone shut down in the middle of a call is like having no phone at all. Apple is a huge and respected company but its conduct in this case was unacceptable.”

On Wednesday, Apple and state officials including Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana attorneys general settled for $113 million in the case.

South Carolina will receive $1,815,511.36, as well as forcing Apple to provide “truthful information to consumers about iPhone battery health, performance and power management” for the future.

“Apple must provide this important information in various forms on its website, in update installation notes, and in the iPhone user interface itself. Apple recently also entered into a proposed settlement of a consumer class action litigation related to the same conduct. If the settlement is approved by the court, consumers who are affected will be contacted about how to get compensation under that separate class action lawsuit,” officials added in a press release.

Officials say that approximately 1,378,000 iPhones in South Carolina were affected.

By Tony Fortier-Bensen, ABC 4 News
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