Patently Apple has posted a series of reports on 'Throttling iPhone' lawsuits filed against Apple since 2019 (01, 02, 03+). Today it's being reported that Apple Inc has urged a London tribunal to block a baseless $2-billion lawsuit against the company for reportedly hiding defective batteries in millions of iPhones by “throttling” them with software updates.

The tech giant is facing a lawsuit worth up to £1.6-billion (US$1.994 billion) plus interest, brought by consumer champion Justin Gutmann on behalf of iPhone users in the United Kingdom.

Gutmann’s lawyers argued in court filings that Apple concealed issues with batteries in certain phone models and “surreptitiously” installed a power management tool which limited performance.

Apple said in written arguments that the lawsuit is “baseless” and strongly denies its iPhones’ batteries were defective, apart from in a small number of iPhone 6s models for which it offered free battery replacements.

The company also says its power management update – introduced in 2017 to manage demands on older batteries or with a low level of charge – only reduced an iPhone 6′s performance by an average of 10 per cent.

Gutmann on Tuesday asked London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case and allow it to proceed towards a trial.

His lawyer Philip Moser referred to Apple’s 2020 agreements to settle a U.S. class action and regulatory action by U.S. states over iPhone battery issues as showing Apple was not “saying this never happened." For more, read the full Reuters report.