Quote:Apple has agreed to settle yet another investigation into its iPhone "batterygate" scandal by paying $113 million. The settlement is with 34 states that have sued the tech giant, led by Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana, for concealing its practices of throttling the performance of older iPhone models with degraded batteries from their owners.
 
The complaint, filed on Wednesday, accused Apple of misleading consumers about its iOS updates using complicated technical notes on battery management. Arizona’s attorney general, in particular, claimed that the company used "deceptive acts and practices” to bolster its sales. These practices also left consumers under the impression that their only resort to address battery performance was to purchase newer iPhone models, the complaint stated.
 
It's the second settlement that Apple has entered into this year. In March, the Cupertino-based company agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits for slowing iPhones, but denied any wrongdoing. The battery throttling issue first surfaced in December 2017 and Apple then clarified that the throttling was necessary to improve user experience on devices with degraded battery performances. This was not made transparent with iOS updates, however, resulting in a class-action suit.
 
Today's settlement includes the company's commitment to make its practices about battery health and power management clear through online and on-device notifications. Although it already did so in a 2018 update to iOS, that information was hidden in the users’ device settings.
 
Source: The Washington Post