Italy’s Altroconsumo has become the third European consumer body to file a class action lawsuit against Apple for what it termed the “planned obsolescence” of older iPhones, following Spain’s OCU and Belgium’s Test Achats. Italy’s consumer protection agency said it filed the legal action at the court of Milan and is seeking a total of EUR 60 million in compensation, or EUR 60 per owner of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus models affected by “an update that was found to cause slowdowns and a drop in performance for these models, and which forced the consumers involved to replace their smartphone with newer models.”
The lawsuits are being coordinated by consumer organisation Euroconsumers, of which Altroconsumo is a member, which said a fourth class action will shortly be filed by Portugal’s Deco-Proteste. “When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect sustainable quality products. Unfortunately, that is not what happened with the iPhone 6 series. Not only were consumers defrauded, and did they have to face frustration and financial harm, from an environmental point of view it is also utterly irresponsible,” said Euroconsumers’ head of policy and enforcement Els Bruggeman.
In Italy, Apple already received a EUR 10 million fine over the “batterygate” iPhone performance throttling scandal, confirmed by an Italian administrative court last year.
