Apple starts paying iPhone users as part of $500 mn 'Batterygate' settlement

San Francisco: Apple has started sending payments to the affected iPhone users as part of $500 million ‘Batterygate’ settlement in the US.

Apple in 2020 agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in the US that accused the iPhone maker of "secretly throttling" some iPhone models.

According to MacRumors, the payouts have finally started going out to individuals who submitted a claim.

Some users have seen cheques deposited to their accounts amounting to $92.17 per user as part of the settlement.

Apple always denied the allegations, saying it agreed to the settlement only to "avoid burdensome and costly litigation."

The class-action lawsuit included any US resident who owned an affected iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and/or iPhone SE that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later, and/or an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later, before December 21, 2017.

In August last year, a judge in the US gave final nod to allow payments to the affected iPhone users.

According to the 2018 lawsuit, consumers complained their phones were shutting off even though the batteries showed a charge of more than 30 per cent.

A 2018 update to iOS now allows users to check the health of their batteries and disable performance throttling.