Apple begins paying customers in $500m settlement over slow iPhones

Customers could get a payout of nearly $92 each

The $500m (£394m) settlement works out at $92 per claim for those affected in the US.

Apple settled the lawsuit back in 2020, but denied any wrongdoing and claimed they only settled to avoid continuing litigation.

The US case first began in 2017 after Apple confirmed claims that they deliberately slowed down older iPhones.

However, the tech giant argued that it was as a result of the model's ageing batteries, and that the "slowdown" helped to prolong the health of the older phones.

Despite this, the news infuriated customers, who found their phones' performance compromised without being informed by Apple.

The company were forced to offer replacement batteries for a reduced cost afterwards,

Apple is facing similar action in the UK

A similar case in the UK is looking for £1.6bn in compensation from Apple, after the company lost a bid to block the action in November.

Justin Gutmann brought around the case back in 2022, which is estimated to represent over 20 million users.

Although the US case only refers to the iPhone 6 and 7 models, the UK lawsuit extends to iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X devices.

"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," Apple has said previously, calling the allegations "baseless".