A lawyer for a group of iPhone owners says a British Columbia judge has approved a countrywide multimillion-dollar settlement with tech giant Apple over software updates that allegedly slowed down older devices.
Lawyer K.S. Garcha says class members who make claims on the $14.4-million settlement can expect to receive between $17.50 and $150 each, depending on how many people submit a claim for the settlement money.
The settlement covers eligible residents of Canada except those in Quebec, which Mr. Garcha says could reach nine million people.
He says the settlement process took a couple of years, with Apple agreeing to a “compromise” without admitting any wrongdoing.
Mr. Garcha says the class-action lawsuit was a “complex matter” involving novel legal theories about the company putting software on devices without the owners’ consent.
The B.C. lawsuit was originally filed in 2018, and Apple settled a similar case in the United States involving so-called throttling of iPhone 6 and 7 models, and Mr. Garcha says American class members ended up with US$92 payouts.
