Lawsuit against Apple contends iPhone 4S devices slowed down after software update

Apple is ending the year facing a class action lawsuit.

The Cupertino, Calif., company was slapped with the lawsuit on Tuesday. The suit contends that one of its software updates, iOS 9, deliberately slows down older iPhone models.

The lead plaintiff, New York resident Chaim Lerman, accuses Apple of falsely advertising that iOS 9 is compatible with and supports the iPhone 4S – a 2011 model – when it made his phone unusable.

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The class action suit has at least 100 plaintiffs, who all claim the update significantly slowed down their iPhones and interfered with the normal use of the devices. Some phone owners also reported their phones repeatedly crashed, “leaving Plaintiff with a difficult choice: use a slow and buggy device that disrupts every day life, or spend hundreds of dollars to buy a new phone,” the suit says.

Apple does not allow phone owners to downgrade their operating systems, so any updates made are irreversible.

Apple declined to comment.

The class action suit caps a year of lawsuits against the technology giant. In June, the company lost an appeal against a 2013 court ruling that concluded it violated antitrust laws in the e-book market. In September, the company joined Google and other Silicon Valley companies in a $415 million settlement after it was accused of illegally conspiring with other tech firms to prevent its workers from getting better job offers.

Twitter: @traceylien

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