Apple to pay $18 million in broken FaceTime lawsuit

Jacob Woodward

Jacob Woodward

Apple to pay $18 million in broken FaceTime lawsuit

Last Updated on

It’s fair to say Apple has been in the bad books of many due to throttling older generations of their iPhones but it’s their latest lawsuit deal that has struck a chord with users. To put it plainly, when iOS 6 moved over to iOS 7, Apple changed the technical backend of FaceTime to save on server costs. This meant that those with iPhone 4 or 4S devices were pretty much left in the lurch when it came to making FaceTime calls. There would be an incredible slowdown and even the app not working at all.

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Because of this, a class-action lawsuit was formed and has now been finalized, compensating users that experienced this exploitation. The total compensation that was agreed on was $18 million, which may seem a fair amount but when broken down, between the 90% of the class action members that will receive compensation, it doesn’t surmount to much. 3.6 million devices are said to have been affected by the update, and each class member will receive an estimated $3. Measly considering how much profit Apple generates. However, one small victory is that while 30% of the settlement fund will go to the class counsel, the two original named plaintiffs will get $7,500 each.

Overall, $18 million is almost a drop in the ocean compared to what Apple makes but it sets the precedent for future lawsuits if something like this comes to light again. We hope Apple has learned its lesson this time and know they can’t win against the masses of disgruntled users.

It’s fair to say Apple has been in the bad books of many due to throttling older generations of their iPhones but it’s their latest lawsuit deal that has struck a chord with users. To put it plainly, when iOS 6 moved over to iOS 7, Apple changed the technical backend of FaceTime to save on server costs. This meant that those with iPhone 4 or 4S devices were pretty much left in the lurch when it came to making FaceTime calls. There would be an incredible slowdown and even the app not working at all.

Because of this, a class-action lawsuit was formed and has now been finalized, compensating users that experienced this exploitation. The total compensation that was agreed on was $18 million, which may seem a fair amount but when broken down, between the 90% of the class action members that will receive compensation, it doesn’t surmount to much. 3.6 million devices are said to have been affected by the update, and each class member will receive an estimated $3. Measly considering how much profit Apple generates. However, one small victory is that while 30% of the settlement fund will go to the class counsel, the two original named plaintiffs will get $7,500 each.

Overall, $18 million is almost a drop in the ocean compared to what Apple makes but it sets the precedent for future lawsuits if something like this comes to light again. We hope Apple has learned its lesson this time and know they can’t win against the masses of disgruntled users.

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