iPhone lawsuit over battery throttling will go to UK court

The case has been brought by Justin Gutmann, who claims the tech giant deceived up to 25 million customers by "throttling" their devices without their knowledge.

It was given the go-ahead by a UK court on Wednesday (November 2).

The models allegedly affected include the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus, Sky News reports.

Apple has described the case as "baseless" but Mr Gutmann has claimed the company was effectively forcing people to pay for replacement batteries or entirely new phones.

The case will relate to iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus models (Image: PA)

The lawsuit claims it did this through software updates that diminished the performance of older handsets over time.

What will happen if the case is successful?

If the case is successful all owners would be entitled to compensation for each impacted model they owned.

Apple has strongly denied any batteries in its handsets were defective, apart from a few iPhone 6S models and in those instances, it offered free battery replacements.

In a statement, they said: "We have never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades."

Apple tried to get Mr Gutman's lawsuit thrown out, but the Competition Appeal Tribunal has now ruled it can go ahead.

Mr Gutmann is seeking damages of up to £1.6 billion (Image: Canva)

However, it said the case lacked some "clarity and specificity" so it has asked Mr Gutmann's legal team to resolve the issues before any trial.

Speaking on the case, Mr Gutmann described the court's ruling as "a major step towards consumer justice".

Mr Gutmann is seeking damages of up to £1.6bn, with the midpoint range being £853m.

Apple previously paid $113m (£93m) to settle a similar case in Arizona, and $500m (£413m) to settle another in California.