On Wednesday, Apple Inc. lost its attempt to stop a multi-billion-dollar London lawsuit that claims the tech giant is concealing faulty batteries in millions of iPhones.
Justin Gutmann, a British consumer advocate, filed the action on behalf of the approximately 24 million iPhone customers in the UK.
On their behalf, Gutmann is suing Apple for damages of up to 1.6 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) plus interest; the midpoint of the claim is 853 million pounds.
His attorneys contended that Apple added a power management tool that hampered performance and “throttled” the batteries in some phone models, hiding problems with them.
Apple, on the other hand, called the complaint “baseless” and vehemently refuted any defects in the iPhone’s battery, with the exception of a small number of iPhone 6s models, for which free battery replacements were provided.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) decided in a written decision on Wednesday that Gutmann’s case can move forward, despite the company’s attempts to have the case dismissed.
However, the CAT did note that Gutmann’s case required resolution due to “a lack of clarity and specificity” before a trial could take place.
It further stated that, in light of a significant Supreme Court decision from July declaring many of these agreements illegal, Gutmann’s litigation finance arrangements could need to be modified.
In a statement, Gutmann noted that the decision represented “a major step towards consumer justice”.
A spokesperson for Apple referenced an earlier statement from the company, stating: “We have never—and would never—do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”
The approval of Gutmann’s case increases the quantity of high-value mass litigations that are presently pending in London in the wake of a ruling in July that authorized lawsuits against large banks for suspected foreign exchange manipulation.
