- Apple will pay between $310 million and $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
- The lawsuit was over "batterygate," a scandal where Apple was accused of decreasing the performance of older phones.
Do you remember "batterygate?" In 2020, lots of iPhone users filed claims as part of an Apple settlement related to the slowdown of older iPhones.
Years later, payouts are finally going to be sent out.
Batterygate started when Apple users began accusing the company of purposefully slowing down older iPhones with aging batteries.
In 2017, people began to catch on to the fact that some performance issues were related to their batteries. After some iPhone owners had their batteries replaced, they noticed that performance-related issues were resolved, according to data from Geekbench.
Later that year, Apple admitted to throttling the performance of older phones. Apple said it slowed down the impacted phones because, as phone batteries get older, there is a risk of the phone suddenly shutting down. It was a major scandal for the company, and resulted in multiple lawsuits that were eventually folded into a class-action lawsuit.
Rather than continue pouring money into a pricey legal battle, Apple reached a settlement (denying any wrongdoing) and agreed to pay $310 - $500 million, depending on the number of claims filed.
Each person who submitted a claim will see a payment of around $65, The Mercury News reported.
If you were eligible for a payout, you had file a claim before October 6, 2020, meaning it's now too late if you missed the deadline.
The iPhones affected under the class action lawsuit include the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE. Only those who experienced a decrease in speed and performance were eligible to file claims, and the phones had to have been owned before 2018.
An Apple spokesperson didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the payouts ahead of publication.