The British Columbia Supreme Court has approved a countrywide multimillion-dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Apple over software updates that allegedly slowed down older iPhones.
鈥淲e鈥檙e pleased with the results,鈥� said K.S. Garcha, a lawyer for the class. 鈥淚t was a complex matter.鈥�
Garcha said in an interview that the judge in the case approved the settlement at a hearing Tuesday.
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, he said.
The agreement covers eligible residents of Canada except those in Quebec, which Garcha said is about nine million people.
The settlement process took a couple of years, with Apple agreeing to a 鈥渃ompromise鈥� without admitting any wrongdoing, Garcha said.
Going to trial rather than settling could鈥檝e taken 鈥渁 long period of time,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he court may not approve some of the claims that you鈥檙e making, there鈥檚 an issue with regards to how the damages were quantified, there are potential appeals, he said.
The company 鈥渧igorously defended the thing up until the settlement negotiations,鈥� Garcha added.
He said the class-action lawsuit involved novel legal theories about the company putting software on devices without the owners鈥� consent.
People who owned iPhone models covered by the settlement have six months to make a claim, and the online process requires a person鈥檚 name, address and iPhone serial number.
People also have to declare under oath that they downloaded or installed certain software updates on a variety of iPhone 6 and 7 models before Dec. 21, 2017.
They would have also had to have 鈥渆xperienced diminished performance on that device after the relevant iOS version was installed or downloaded.鈥�
The settlement agreement with Apple will see the company pay out between $11,137,500 and $14,427,500 depending on how many claims are made and approved.
The claims website for the 鈥淐anadian iPhone Power Management Class Action,鈥� says Quebec residents are excluded from the settlement because there鈥檚 a separate, ongoing case before the courts in that province.
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 Garcha said American class members ended up with US$92 payouts.
At a hearing in Vancouver in late January, Apple鈥檚 lawyer Jill Yates told the court the company has never admitted wrongdoing.
鈥淎pple, throughout, has taken a position that it has done nothing wrong here,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hese claims are novel and they are not ones where Apple agrees that anything was wrongfully done.鈥�
The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the settlement approval.
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