Attorney General Fox Participates in Lawsuit against Apple

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox announced on Wednesday that the State of Montana received a settlement of just over $1 million regarding Apple’s 2016 decision to throttle consumers’ iPhone speeds in order to address unexpected shutdowns in some iPhones.

Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion provided details of the settlement.

“One thing that Apple did is that they discovered that their iPhones dating back to 2016 had battery issues, and rather than letting consumers know about it, they did some kind of software updates,” said Bennion. “That actually led to decreased performance in the iPhone that would result in it unexpectedly shutting down, and so this is the kind of thing that violates the Consumer Protection Act, so that's why Attorney General Fox joined with other attorneys general from around the country to bring this action against Apple.”

Bennion provided more details about the settlement.

“Because it constitutes a violation of our Consumer Protection Act, as a part of the settlement, Apple will have to pay the state around $1.1 million,” he said “That money will ultimately probably make its way into the state general fund, but it serves as a deterrent against Apple for future bad conduct, but also for other corporations that may want to conceal things that are going wrong in the company rather than let consumers know about it.”

Bennion said taking such an action is part of the mandate given to the Attorney General’s office.

“That's a big part of what the attorney general's office does is to protect consumers when there are bad actors,” he said. “Oftentimes, it's these very large corporations that do things that aren't in the best interests of consumers. There's got to be a check and balance. There's got to be accountability, and that's one thing that Attorney General Fox has done very well during his time as the Attorney General is just making sure that Montana consumers are protected and when there are violations that he hold those corporations responsible.”

In addition to the monetary payment, Apple also must provide truthful information to consumers about iPhone battery health, performance, and power management.