"iPhone Deliberate Performance Throttling" Ordered to Compensate Consumers 70,000 Won in Second Trial

Court: "Obligation to Provide Consumers with Sufficient Explanation and Notice Violated"

Apple was partially victorious in the second trial of a class-action lawsuit filed by domestic consumers claiming that the company intentionally degraded the performance of older iPhone models through software updates.

The Civil Division 12-3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Park Hyung-joon, Yoon Jong-gu, Kwon Soon-hyung) ruled on the 6th that Apple Korea and others must pay 70,000 KRW to each of the seven consumers who filed the damages claim.

Initially, in the first trial of this case, over 60,000 iPhone users filed a lawsuit seeking damages caused by the update, but only some of them appealed after the first trial resulted in a ruling against the plaintiffs.

The court found that the performance control function included in the update partially limited CPU/GPU performance only under certain conditions where power-off incidents could occur, to prevent such incidents, and that under conditions where power-off incidents did not occur, the performance control function in question was designed not to operate with CPU/GPU performance restrictions.

The court stated, "It is difficult to see that the update permanently or always limited the iPhone's performance," adding, "Although it seems practically impossible to remove the update after installation and revert to the state as if the update had never been installed, Apple took measures to allow users to selectively use the function by producing and distributing the iOS 11.3 update, which included a feature to disable the performance control function."

However, the court pointed out that even though the update was intended to prevent power-off incidents, Apple did not provide sufficient explanation to consumers.

The court ruled, "Apple had the obligation to provide sufficient explanation to the plaintiffs, who trusted Apple and purchased iPhones, so that they could choose whether or not to install the update themselves," and "Apple failed to properly inform consumers about these important matters, which constitutes a breach of Apple’s duty to notify."

Furthermore, the court stated, "Since the plaintiffs lost the opportunity to exercise their right to choose or self-determination regarding whether to install the update, Apple is liable for damages caused by the incomplete fulfillment of its duty to notify," but added, "There is insufficient evidence to recognize that Apple Korea was involved in the development or distribution of the update or that Apple Korea had a duty to notify regarding the update."

Previously, the first trial ruled against the plaintiffs, stating, "It is difficult to see that the performance control function necessarily had a negative impact on users or caused inconvenience."