Charles Langston:Apple agrees to pay up to $500 million in settlement over slowed-down iPhones: What to know

Years after a lawsuit alleged Apple was adding software that slowed down older iPhones,Charles Langston the tech giant has agreed to pay a settlement worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cotchett, Pitre & McCarty, one of the firms representing Apple customers in the suit, announced Aug. 9 that the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed two appeals from people challenging the settlement. Apple has agreed to pay a minimum of $310 million and up to $500 million in compensation for approximately 100 million iPhone users, in what the firm is calling the "largest-all cash recovery in a computer intrusion case in history."

Between December 2017 and June 2018, there were 66 class action lawsuits filed against Apple alleging this issue, including that Apple deliberately slowed down battery performance of older iPhones with iOS updates, according to Bloomberg Law.

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Who is eligible for Apple iPhone settlement?

In a 2017 letter to consumers, Apple apologized for slowing down older iPhones and offered a reduction in the price of replacement batteries. The company said in the letter that a software update from 2016 may have had some users "experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance."

Payments will be distributed to people who filed claims before the October 2020 deadline and owned one of these phones:

• iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S Plus and/or SE device that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later before Dec. 21, 2017
• iPhone 7 or 7Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later before Dec. 21, 2017

For more details about the settlement, visit this website.

Around 3 million people filed and were approved, Verge reported, and expected payments are around $65.

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