Korean Consumer Group Slaps Apple with Another Legal Complaint

Korean Consumer Group Slaps Apple with Another Legal Complaint

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A South Korean consumer group has slapped Apple with a legal complaint after the firm confirmed that it slows down older iPhones, according to the BBC.

Last month, the American tech giant made headlines when it confirmed allegations that it uses battery throttling for aging iPhones. It was soon hit with controversy with many deeming these actions to be illegal.

The company faces lawsuits across the world, including the United States. And the French Government recently opened a case against the company, alleging that it’s committed obsolescence.

Apple has denied any wrongdoing, but lawmakers and consumer activists believe that company has defrauded customers by using battery throttling to get customers to upgrade to newer handsets.

Now, South Korea-based consumer support organization Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty has accused the firm of wrongdoing. It said that the technology company has conducted “destruction of property” and “fraud”.

Park Soon-jang, who works for the group, commented: “For the sake of its loyal fans, Apple has to take responsibility over the slowing iPhones.”

The consumer group has reportedly opened a civil lawsuit representing around 120 plaintiffs, who are looking to gain damages from the California-based company.

This particular lawsuit is focusing on Apple’s iOS 10.2.1 update, which rolled out to iPhone users in 2016. It impacted the GPU performance of iPhone 6, 6s and SE handsets.

Apple has, however, apologized for this crisis. Last month, the company released a statement saying: We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process.

“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.”

However, Apple said it doesn’t do “anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades”.

The company added: “Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”

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