Apple agrees to pay $18 million for breaking FaceTime on older iPhones

When Apple launched iOS 7 in 2013, the company changed how FaceTime worked, switching to a new peer-to-peer standard that did not infringe on patents from a company called VirnetX. The switch allowed Apple to, as it commonly does, own the entire experience. The move, however, "broke" FaceTime for devices that were unable to update to iOS 7.

It appears that the company has agreed to pay an $18 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit in California to move on from the matter. According to a report by 9to5Mac, 90% of the class action members involved in the case will receive compensation. The law firm handling the case will receive 30% of the settlement, with $7500 going to the original plaintiffs and an estimated $3.00 going to each member of the class action.

Those receiving compensation are apparently defined as those who own an iPhone 4 or 4S with iOS 6 or earlier installed on their device.

"The class is defined as all California owners of non-jailbroken Apple iPhone 4 or 4S devices with iOS 6 or earlier operating systems."

Apple had just recently had a similar case thrown out of a Florida court. In that case, the court ruled that the lawsuit was "untimely and must be dismissed."

Since we are now almost a month away from iOS 14 being unveiled at a virtual WWDC, we can hope that this will be the last of the kind of lawsuit that deals with a version of iOS that is over six years old.