Apple pays British council £385 million after five years of iPhone row
APPLE has agreed to pay £385 million to an English council after a five-year iPhone feud.
The tech giant’s boss, Tim Crook, is embroiled in a lawsuit led by a local authority in East Anglia.
The legal action alleged that Apple’s CEO defrauded shareholders by covering up demand for iPhones in China.
Norfolk Council claimed Mr Cook’s actions resulted in financial losses to a pension fund under his management.
In a statement, the local government said it was “very proud of this recovery for investors.”
The Norfolk Pension Fund said the decision was a triumph for investors as countless families depended on the pensions.
The statement said: ‘We are aware that we are trustees of the pensions upon which thousands of families and individuals rely.
“When and where warranted, we will take decisive action to recover losses when our participants’ investments are damaged by fraud.”
The lawsuit, called a class action, was on behalf of a group of plaintiffs affected by the company.
At the center of the legal battle were comments made by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.
He assured investors in November 2018 that there was “selling pressure” in certain regions, but he “wouldn’t put China in that category.”
However, just two months later, Apple lowered its quarterly revenue guidance.
It cited escalating tensions between China and the US, which caused a dramatic drop in the company’s stock value.
At the time, reports suggested that Apple had ordered its top smartphone assemblers to “halt plans for additional production lines for the iPhone XR.”
Investors claimed they felt misled by Crook’s assurances and suffered financial losses.
They then filed a class action lawsuit initially filed against Apple by the US city of Roseville.
However, Norfolk Council took over the legal action as lead plaintiff in 2020.
Although Apple has contested the lawsuit, a trial was scheduled for later this year.
A preliminary settlement was filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in California, but still requires approval from a judge.
While the exact portion of the settlement to Norfolk County Council remains unknown, the payout amounts to less than two days’ profit for the wealthy company.
The Sun Online has contacted Apple for comment.
It comes as millions of UK iPhone owners could get a relief from an £853 million lawsuit claiming Apple deliberately slowed down devices to mask a battery fault.
Consumer champion Justin Gutmann, who is suing Apple, claims the company failed to inform users that software updates would harm their device’s performance.
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