■ reporter Ma Yan
According to media reports, Apple Inc. recently publicly acknowledged that limiting the speed of the old iPhone runs the risk of public outrage in the United States is facing 8 class actions.
Currently, cellphone users in the United States have received petitions in local courts in California, New York State and Illinois suing Apple for cheating consumers without the user's knowledge of the older iPhone.
A lawsuit filed in the San Francisco court on December 21 states that 'the iPhone's lithium battery fails to meet the peak current requirements of the processor speed, which is a product defect, and Apple's approach is intended to cover the flaw.' It is reported that the The plaintiff attorney was Geoffrey Fawcello, who joined a 2013 lawsuit claiming a $ 53 million settlement on behalf of the plaintiff and Apple.
According to media estimates, these lawsuits may amount to 9990 billion US dollars.If the current market value of 900 billion US dollars estimated Apple, 999 billion US dollars or even more than the market value of the apple.
Boston University professor Lori van Loo believes that 'if the lawsuit is true, once consumers understand the nature of Apple's product upgrades, then they just replace the battery, rather than buy a new machine. As a result, Apple's behavior or composition Fraudulent.
However, Chris? Huf Nagel, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, believes that this may not be the fault of Apple because there are currently no laws and regulations on the protection of consumer rights and interests of old products, product degradation and functional disablement Reasonable behavior
In addition, in addition to claims, some of the plaintiffs petitioned the court to bar Apple from restricting the speed of Apple's mobile phones and Macs without the user's knowledge.
Shanghai Da Bang lawyer Youyun Ting accept "Securities Daily" interview that the matter depends on Apple in the end there is no responsibility in one case, the battery is normal aging, can not afford the new Apple operating system needs, so reduce the frequency , To protect the battery life, it is reasonable; the other case is that the battery problem is Apple's design flaws, or production defects, this case should not solve the problem by software, but should be replaced by free hardware for consumers to solve Problem; the third case is that Apple deliberately reduce the frequency of consumer replacement of its newly produced products, this situation is very bad, depending on the court investigation to determine the situation.
China University of Political Science and Law Institute of Civil Law, deputy director of Civil and Commercial Economic Law Professor Liu Zhihui said in an interview that Apple did not carry out any information on the case of the old cell phone on the use of 'artificially slow down the phone speed' Technology, even if its purpose is to avoid the cell phone battery aging caused by accidental destructive shutdown, also alleged infringement of the user's right to information.
You Yun court also believes that, even if the first case he listed, Apple should also prompt users to upgrade.
Apple control the old phone slowed down 8 cases have been prosecuted
The claimed amount of 999 billion US dollars the value of the apple