Many owners (or former owners) of iPhone devices have started receiving $92.17 in their accounts from Apple. The payments are part of Apple's $500 million settlement in the "Batterygate" controversy over deliberately slowing iPhone performance as the device's battery ages and degrades.
The deadline by which users could submit compensation claims was until 6.10.2020. If you had an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or iPhone SE, you can submit a claim for each of those devices.
What does "batterygate" mean for iPhone devices?
A lawsuit resulted in Apple being accused of defrauding consumers by deliberately slowing down the performance of iPhones as their batteries aged.
The "Batterygate" scandal had as its starting point the launch of the IOS 10.1.1 update in 2016, when reports on battery consumption and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S have occurred. Users have encountered unexpected interruptions of devices and sudden decreases in battery percentage. In December 2016, Apple confirmed a battery manufacturing defect in certain iPhone 6S models, explaining that it does not present safety dangers, but can reduce the ability and cause interruptions to protect electronic components.
Related: How do you increase the life of iPhone battery (Maxim Capacity)
"Batterygate" erupted when developers discovered that Apple had intentionally slowed the performance of older models through software updates, causing deliberate performance degradation on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 models. Apple issued a formal apology in 2017, acknowledging that it had implemented performance controls to prevent the devices from unexpectedly shutting down based on battery health. The company offered discounts on battery replacements and improved transparency about battery health in later versions of iOS, but the scandal had significant consequences for user trust in Apple's performance management policy.
In January 2019, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a letter to shareholders that more than 11 million battery replacements had been made under the price reduction program. The company said it has never done, and never will, "intentionally do anything to shorten the life of any Apple product or degrade the user experience in order to encourage upgrades to new iPhone models."
iOS 11.3 introduced detailed battery health information and also allows disabling performance controls.
Starting with the iPhone 11, Apple introduced a new performance management system designed to "reduce the impact of degraded performance due to battery aging."
