Lawsuits Hit Apple, Worldwide, Over IPhone Slowdown

Just days after Apple announced it had slowed down the processing speed of older iPhones in order to forestall sudden shutdowns from aging batteries, a lawsuit in South Korea was said to have garnered almost 67,000 potential plaintiffs. Meanwhile, class action lawsuits have been filed in a number of U.S. states and in Israel. In France, a consumer group has filed a lawsuit invoking a law which makes planned obsolescence a criminal offense. Apple defends the logic of its action, but has apologized and says it will offer owners of affected phones battery replacements at a reduced price and will update its software so users will be able to monitor the condition of their phone’s battery.