A B.C. Supreme Court judge has approved a proposed settlement of up to $14.4 million from Apple to eligible members of a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of deliberately providing software updates that slowed some older iPhone models.
Apple, which denies the allegations, had earlier agreed to pay between $11.1 million and $14.4 million as part of the settlement. It says the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Depending on how many people apply for the settlement, claimants will receive between $17.50 and $150. They must provide a serial number for the impacted phone.
The settlement applies to residents in all provinces except for Quebec. Similar lawsuits were filed in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The judge ultimately decided that the proposed settlement was “fair, reasonable and in the best decision of the class,” said class counsel Michael Peerless in an interview with CBC News.
“Apple did the right thing and came forward and, in a sense, stood behind their product without making a legal admission that they did anything wrong. And that’s very normal” for a class action, Peerless said.
Apple customers who bought an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7 or 7 Plus with iOS 10.2.1 or later (for iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, or SE) and/or iOS 11.2 or later (for iPhone 7 or 7 Plus) before Dec. 21, 2017 may be eligible for the settlement, according to a website representing the class action.
Class members who submit an approved claim form over the next few months, which will be available in the coming days, will receive a cash payment from Apple. The deadline to opt out of the class action was Jan. 10.
The claims administrator will have a search feature to help people confirm their eligibility, added Peerless. “Not only does Apple want that kind of evidence, but we do, and the court does as well, because we don’t want people to be able to make fraudulent claims,” he said.
A similar case in the U.S. saw the company settle with iPhone users whose devices were throttled by software updates, diminishing the phones’ performance and battery life.
The California case settlement range was between $310 million US and $500 million US.
CBC News has reached out to Apple for a statement.
Transparency concerns around software updates
Several people reacted favourably to the news while walking outside in downtown Toronto.
“I think it’s great because [Apple is] big enough, and they took all that money from other people. They should give it back,” said Vito Cosentino, who said he’s sure he had one of the impacted models but won’t have proof to claim the settlement.
Another pedestrian shared similar sentiments. “It’s not obviously a huge sum of money that’s being distributed, but I understand that there’s probably a ton of people who would be part of this lawsuit, so yeah … any amount helps,” Hannah Weinberg told CBC News.
Benjamin Tan, an assistant professor of electrical and software engineering at the University of Calgary, said that many companies have moved toward a new software update at least every month to fix bugs and add new features.
But those updates can include software which further degrades the phone, leading consumers to purchase a new model sooner than they would have otherwise.
“There’s a lot in the digital world that we don’t necessarily have full control over anymore, partly because the systems are really complicated,” said Tan.
Lack of clarity around software updates ’cause for concern,’ expert says
Benjamin Tan, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary with expertise in hardware security, says companies don’t always make it clear what they are doing in a software update, but urges people to pay attention and install them as they come.
“In this particular case, though, what was I think cause for concern was that companies don’t always make it very clear exactly what they’re updating,” he added.
“And when they don’t really advertise in advance that these might be some of the side effects that happen to address battery issues or security flaws or something, that’s usually [when] people say, ‘Hang on, what’s going on here? This wasn’t really anticipated.'”
‘Tucked away in the sock drawer’
Alex Sebastian, the co-founder and COO of Orchard, a Canadian company that resells used iPhones, said his customer service team noticed that there was an uptick in reported slowdowns among iPhone 6, 6S and 7 models after the iPhone 8 was introduced alongside iOS 11 in 2017.
“Customers were starting to call in to talk about their phone slowing down and asked what can be done about it, and the short answer is, there wasn’t a lot that we could do to help them out there,” Sebastian told CBC News.
“I think it’s pretty conservative to estimate that 10 million Canadians bought one of those generations of phones, so that’s 10 million potential claimants you have out there,” he said.
‘Customers were starting to call in to talk about their phone slowing down and asked what can be done about it,’ said Alex Sebastian, the co-founder and COO of Orchard, a Canadian company that buys and sells used devices. (James Dunne/CBC)
At the time, iPhone users were upgrading their phones every 24 to 28 months on average, he said. Today, the turnover rate is more like 30 to 33 months.
Eligible claimants will be able to apply for a max of $150 from the settlement pool, which is more than the cost of replacing a battery on one of the impacted phone models today — and on par with what it would have cost to do so several years ago, according to Sebastian.
“I think there’s a lot of outcomes where claimants are not receiving the full $150, because there is an upper limit of $14[.4] million dollars on the entire settlement,” he said.
“I think that a lot of people probably have disposed of their phones by now. But there’s certainly going to be a meaningful proportion who have tucked it away in the sock drawer, that can go find that phone and pull the serial number off and make a claim here.”
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
