Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Deliberately Slowing Older iPhones

Following an admission from Apple that it intentionally caps the processing power of older iPhones in order to preserve battery, the company has been hit with a class action lawsuit over the practice, TMZ reported .

Stefan Bogdanovich, a Los Angeles area man who owns an older model iPhone, filed suit against Apple Thursday. Bogdanovich alleges that Apple’s practice of “throttling” or slowing older iPhone models causes problems for those device owners.

According to Bogdanovich’s complaint, he and other iPhone users never agreed to Apple’s decision to cap the processing power of older devices and doing so lowers the value and functionality of the previous generation handsets. He also accuses Apple of using the power cap as a ploy to force consumers to buy newer devices.

Apple recently confirmed to its customers that the power of its older generation processors are capped and devices are “slowed” but explained that the practice is intended to preserve the longevity of the devices rather than kill them off.

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices,” a spokesperson for Apple said. “Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.”

According to the spokesperson, the company released a feature last year for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE that is designed to “smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down.”

Apple has since introduced the feature to the iPhone 7 with the release of iOS 11.2—first made available earlier this month—and said it plans to continue to add support for other products going forward.