Italian consumer association Altroconsumo said on Monday it had told Apple Inc. it has launched a class action against the U.S. tech giant for the practice of planned obsolescence.
In a statement, Altroconsumo said it was asking for damages of €60-million ($93-million) on behalf of Italian consumers tricked by the practice, which had also been recognized by Italian authorities.
Altroconsumo said the lawsuit covers owners of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus, sales of which in Italy totalled some one million phones between 2014 and 2020.
Apple said in an e-mail that it had never done anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.
Two similar lawsuits against Apple have been filed in Belgium and Spain for the planned obsolescence of iPhones. European consumer association Euroconsumers, which is co-ordinating the three lawsuits, said it was also planning to launch a class action in Portugal in the coming weeks.
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