Apple Duped Public That iOS 15 Would Work Well on Older iPhones: Class Action

Apple falsely promoted iOS 15 as improving the performance of older devices like the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus when in fact it didn’t work at all well on those devices, and the company should have known that, alleged nine iPhone 7 owners in a fraud class action Wednesday (docket 5:23-cv-03882) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.

The plaintiffs, residents of five states, found in their personal experiences that iOS 15 “slowed down their performance of basic operations across apps,” compared with prior iOS versions, said the complaint. The update “also caused myriad other problems,” such as apps freezing or crashing, the battery draining more quickly, the device taking longer to work after booting, and the device becoming very hot, it said.

Apple frequently includes more powerful processing chips in newer-model iPhones, said the complaint. It then makes each subsequent version of iOS “more complicated and tailored to the capabilities of the latest iPhone,” it said. Older iPhone models like the iPhone 7 “are therefore often unable to run the latest version of iOS properly,” it said.

Apple “never admitted this problem with how iOS 15 operates” on iPhone 7 devices, said the complaint. “This serves Apple’s goals because it gives customers the impression that they can continue to use their older devices at least at the same level of performance while receiving the benefits of a new iOS version, including important security updates,” it said.

If Apple “told the truth,” it would be admitting it doesn’t “continue to fully support the iPhone with iOS updates for as long as it leads customers to believe it does,” said the complaint. The practice of older devices not working well on newer iOS versions “also serves the added benefit to Apple” that when customers become frustrated that their iPhones aren’t working well anymore on the latest iOS update, “they will often spend substantial sums to purchase new iPhones,” it said.

The “honest and transparent way of doing business” would be for Apple to warn its customers that iOS 15 would perform poorly on the iPhone 7 devices, said the complaint. Consumers could then make “an informed decision about whether to download the operating system for its security updates or other purported benefits,” it said.

Apple knew how poorly iOS 15 would perform on the iPhone 7 devices “because it is one of the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world,” it said. When Apple released iOS 16 in September, “it chose not to make that update available for the iPhone 7,” it said.

The complaint alleges violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, plus anti-fraud and consumer protection statutes in several states. It seeks actual and statutory damages, including treble and punitive damages, plus restitution for the plaintiffs and members of their proposed class. Apple didn't comment.