Apple has reached a settlement with consumers, paying $250 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit. Consumers had alleged that the company overstated its artificial intelligence features, which were not delivered on new iPhones. Depending on the final number of claims filed, eligible device owners may receive between $25 and $95 each.
The core of the lawsuit centers on Apple Intelligence, released by Apple in June 2024, as its response to products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Lawyers representing iPhone buyers in the class-action suit stated that the AI features advertised by Apple “did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for at least two years, if ever.”BBC.
In September 2024, when Apple released its new iPhone, the promised intelligent features did not materialize. "The iPhone 16 was delivered to consumers without the 'Apple Intelligence' features, and the enhanced Siri never launched," lawyers stated.
These issues persisted after the product launch. Due to quality concerns, Apple delayed the release of the upgraded Siri to March 2025. Additionally, another intelligent feature—Notification Summary—experienced errors in news report information, leading Apple to completely disable the feature.
According to court filings, Apple denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement and maintained that the dispute concerned only the availability of "two additional features" in the Apple Intelligence suite.
A spokesperson for Apple, Mani Goldberg, stated in a statement: "Since the launch of Apple Intelligence, we have integrated dozens of multilingual features across multiple platforms. We are addressing this matter to continue focusing on what we do best—delivering the most innovative products and services to our users."
This settlement agreement applies to U.S. consumers who purchased eligible iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 devices between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025. The lawsuit covers approximately 36 million devices, representing products sold in the U.S. during that period. Apple must send notifications to eligible users within 45 days starting May 5.
This settlement coincides with Apple’s strategic shift. Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, announced his retirement last December. This January, the company stated it would...use Google’s Geminito power its AI products, including Siri.
Plaintiff Peter Landsheft challenged Apple’s marketing claims, making this one of the first major consumer protection settlements specifically targeting AI product marketing. The outcome comes as regulators and courts are establishing new frameworks to evaluate AI performance claims.
The impact of this settlement extends far beyond Apple. As companies race to integrate artificial intelligence features, this case has set an early precedent for how courts will address the gap between AI marketing claims and technological reality—a concern that is growing as AI becomes more prevalent in consumer products.