New York Man Sues Apple for ‘Malicious, Oppressive’ iPhone Slowdowns

Apple has been sandbagged this year with over 60 class-action lawsuits amid the company’s own revelations that it willfully throttled the performance of certain iPhone models in a bid to prevent them from “unexpectedly shutting down.”

The controversy has not only resulted in Apple launching a massive battery replacement program for eligible iPhone models, but also prompted the company to introduce a suite of new battery health and management tools alongside iOS 11.3.

Now, as Apple forges ahead with addressing these cases, the company has allegedly been hit with yet another lawsuit for its role in thwarting iPhone performance.

Filed this week with the San Jose branch of the U.S. District Court for California’s North District, Mr. Jay Brodsky — submitting a claim fully independent of the 60+ other pending cases — is seeking [a minimum of] $75,000 from Apple for “willfully, maliciously, oppressively and despicably” designing iPhones that would “purposely slowdown.”

According to court documents which were uploaded to Scribd on Friday, Mr. Brodsky lodged a number of specific complaints against the Cupertino tech-giant, including that the company “failed to use due care in the manufacture, distribution, design, sale and testing of the iPhones they were selling,” and further, that it “failed to provide adequate warning of component failure, thereby causing significantly slow performance, dropped calls, and excessive battery drain.”

Mr. Brodsky also asserts that Apple “failed to make timely corrections to the iPhones they were selling in order to correct component failure, thereby causing them to significantly slowdown.” 

Above all, though, Mr. Brodsky maintains that Apple acted “willfully, maliciously, oppressively and despicably,” in full knowledge and awareness of the adverse effects of their actions, and with “deliberate disregard” of the consequences. 

“By reason thereof, the Plaintiff is entitled to recover punitive and exemplary damages from Apple Inc. et al in an amount according to proof at trial,” reads the court document, which can be read in full here.

Learn More: 7 Ways to Help Prevent Your iPhone’s Battery from Exploding