You Might Get Up to $95 for Your iPhone After Apple’s $250 Million Legal Settlement

Apple has agreed to pay $250 million to settle class-action legal claims over alleged misleading advertising stemming from overhyped artificial intelligence features that the company never delivered. If the settlement, which is still pending final approval, receives a judge’s blessing, it will put money back in the pockets of some U.S. iPhone buyers.

Under the terms of the settlement, those buyers will be able to submit a claim for any iPhone 16 or certain iPhone 15 models purchased from June 10, 2024, to March 29, 2025. The payout is expected to be $25 per eligible device, though it could reach as high as $95, depending on the number of submissions, according to the California-based Clarkson Law Firm, one of the firms spearheading the litigation.

Managing partner Ryan J. Clarkson told AARP that class members will have 90 days to file a claim once the settlement website launches in a few months. He said notices would be delivered via email, social media and other channels.

Apple has lagged rivals such as Google and OpenAI in artificial intelligence, critics say. Its flavor of AI, called Apple Intelligence, was supposed to bolster and give new capabilities to Siri, Apple’s longtime voice-activated digital assistant.

In court documents, the plaintiffs argued that “Apple falsely represented what the iPhone 16 could do, in an effort to reverse its trend of declining iPhone sales and capitalize on consumer excitement for truly innovative and advanced AI features. Apple promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years, if ever, all while marketing them as the breakthrough innovation of the iPhone 16.”

The suit pointed to TV and social media commercials featuring Game of Thrones and The Last of Us actor Bella Ramsey that showcased Siri’s AI capabilities, thereby amplifying the “consumer belief that Enhanced Siri was real, available, and revolutionary.”