Apple, U.S. states reach $113 million settlement on iPhone throttling

OAKLAND: Apple Inc will pay $113 million to settle allegations from 33 U.S. states and the District of Columbia that it slowed down iPhones to mask battery issues and get users to purchase new devices, state officials announced on Wednesday.

The deal with a coalition led by Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana is separate from a proposed settlement Apple reached in March to pay affected iPhone owners up to $500 million to stem a class action.

Apple in 2016 quietly updated software on models of the iPhone 6, 7 and SE to throttle chip speeds so that aging batteries on the devices would not send power spikes to the phone’s processor and cause it to unexpectedly shut down. States contended Apple acted deceptively and should have replaced batteries or disclosed the issue.