Apple to pay 66,000 won to ‘battery gate’ consumers

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Apple to pay 66,000 won to ‘battery gate’ consumers

Apple Korea will pay 66,000 won ($61.10) to users of some out-of-warranty iPhones who replaced their batteries last year.

In the aftermath of the so-called battery gate, in which the American phone maker deliberately slowed down some iPhones to save on battery life, Apple initially said it would offer $50 in credit to those who had replaced batteries for affected models this year.

The company is now extending the compensation program to those who had their batteries replaced between January and Dec. 28 last year. The products affected by the measure will be the iPhone 6 and later models with warranties that have expired.

Dec. 28 is the date when Apple apologized for not being clear about slowing down phones - a week after it acknowledged having made changes to the iOS operating system to manage ageing batteries - and dragged down the battery replacement fee from the previous 100,000 won to 34,000 won for the iPhone 6 and later models.

The compensation will only be available for those phones that had batteries replaced at an official Apple Repair Center or Apple Authorized Service Provider, not private repair shops.

Apple Korea said it will send emails to the customers affected by the measure between May 23 and July 27 and the 66,000 won will either be wired to individuals’ bank accounts or credit cards used to pay for the battery replacement.

As of the end of March, 63,000 iPhone users in Korea had filed a suit worth 12.8 billion won against Apple.


BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]
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