Some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus owners are about to get paid. Apple has settled a class-action lawsuit regarding audio issues with both phone variants, which could result in payments of up to $349 per person. However, potential recipients only have until June 3 to file their claim. To be eligible for the payment, you need to have owned an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus between Sept. 16, 2016, and Jan. 3, 2023, and reported the audio issue to Apple during that time frame. This also includes anyone who paid for a repair for those issues out of their own pocket. Apple employees and judicial officers are not eligible.If that sounds like you, head to the class-action lawsuit’s website, double-check your eligibility, print out and fill in a Payment Attestation Form, mail it in, and then wait for your check. A final approval hearing is scheduled for July 18, 2024. Payments will get sorted at some point after that. According to the lawsuit’s FAQ page, payments will vary from $50 to $349. Settlement members who reported the issues but did not get repairs may also be eligible for an additional $125. It’ll come out of a $35 million settlement fund that will be set up once the court finalizes everything. The lawsuit dates back to 2018 with the release of iOS 11.3, which triggered a hardware bug in both phones. At the time, it seemed like a microphone problem since people were difficult to hear on voice calls. However, the lawsuit later attributed the issue to a faulty “audio IC” chip.
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Apple posted some workarounds, such as disabling Bluetooth headsets and audio accessories, which temporarily fixed the problem for some. Eventually, Apple offered free repairs to affected devices even if they were out of warranty, but it was sued in 2019. A preliminary settlement was reached last year, The New York Times notes.
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