Batterygate: Over 63,000 South Korean customers file a lawsuit against Apple

Last year, when Apple had released iOS 10.2, many users of the company's older phones started noticing a severe drop in performance. Not long after the initial reports, Apple also acknowledged the issue. In the meantime, they also added the chance to disable CPU throttling, although it took them quite a while and only added this option in iOS 11.3. However, many customers were not happy with the whole deal, so now Apple is facing what is the biggest in terms of plaintiffs for a single lawsuit in South Korea.

This class action lawsuit was filed by exactly 63,767 customers who might receive a total of KR₩12.7 billion, the equivalent of almost US$12 million. These customers are represented by the law firm Hanuri, who is asking the amount of KR₩200,000 (almost US$189) per each plaintiff "for duping consumers and causing mental distress." The number of those interested in suing Apple was initially far higher — around 400,000 — but the number dropped following authentications.

Since the batterygate blew up in December, Apple faced at least 59 separate lawsuits because of it. In South Korea, 122 customers filed a lawsuit in January, while 401 did it earlier this month. In both cases, they asked damages of around US$2,000 per person.