Apple to pay $18 million to settle lawsuit over intentionally breaking FaceTime on older iPhones

Apple was accused of intentionally breaking FaceTime feature on iPhones running older iterations of iOS. This affected older-generation smartphones such as iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Apple to pay $18 million as settlement for FaceTime lawsuit (AP)

Apple has agreed an $18 million deal to settle a class-action lawsuit in California that accused the tech giant of intentionally breaking FaceTime on older iPhones, specifically the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Over 3.6 million devices are said to have been affected by the update and each class member will receive an estimated $3, reports 9to5Mac.

Thirty per cent of the settlement fund will go to the class counsel. The lawsuit's two class representatives, Christina Grace and Ken Potter, stand to gain up $7,500 each as an incentive award for their participation in the case.

To recall, FaceTime launched in 2010 as a first-party videoconferencing technology for iPhone.

The class-action lawsuit in California accused Apple of intentionally breaking FaceTime on iPhones running older versions of iOS.

According to the lawsuit, that breaking FaceTime in iOS 6 allowed Apple to save money because it would no longer need to support users who did not upgrade to iOS 7.

Apple originally agreed to reach a settlement deal back in February.

The Cupertino based tech giant was also hit with a similar class action in Florida which was dismissed by federal court.