iPhone slow? Owners could be due payout after Apple settles $500 million case over older handsets

Complaints came after Apple admitted it reduced performance of older iPhones to stop them malfunctioning

A customer looks at a white and a black iPhone 4 at the Apple store April 28, 2011 in Palo Alto, California (David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

iPhone owners could be in for a payout from Apple after the company settled a case over its intentional slowing down of handsets.

The decision comes after Apple admitted in 2017 that it was intentionally reducing the performance of some older iPhones. It was doing so to ensure that they would not unexpectedly shut down, it said, but the admission led to a flurry of criticism over the fact that users were not informed.

It has since rolled out a range of attempts to make that better, including a feature that will alert users when they are subject to the performance throttling and the option to turn it off.

Now the company has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle the claims. Apple and lawyers representing affected customers agreed to the deal as the fallout from the feature continues.

As well as changing features in the software, the admission also led to Apple offering discounted battery replacements at $29, but many people claimed they had already spent hundreds of dollars to buy new phones because Apple didn't reveal the cause of the problem. If they had known they could just buy new batteries, they might not have bought new phones, some consumers in the case said.

Apple did not admit wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, the company will pay $310 million to $500 million, including about $93 million to lawyers representing consumers.

IPhone users who were named in the class-action lawsuit will get up to $3,500 each. The rest of the settlement money will be distributed to owners of iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE models who meet eligibility requirements related to the operating system they had running. They must file claims to get the award. If too many people file, the $25 amount could shrink.

A federal judge in San Jose, California, still needs to approve the settlement.

Additional reporting by agencies