The deadline is approaching to sign up to receive a portion of Apple’s $35 million settlement with iPhone 7 or 7 Plus users who experienced audio issues with their device’s microphone. Those eligible to make a claim can receive between $50 and $349 from the tech giant.
The settlement is only available to U.S. residents who owned one of these phone models between September 16, 2016 and January 3, 2023 and reported a covered audio issue to Apple or paid the company for repairs.
The deadline to submit a claim is June 3 via the settlement website.
Those who paid for repairs can receive a maximum of $349, while people who reported the problem but did not pay for repairs can receive up to $125. The minimum payment for eligible applicants is $50.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2019 by plaintiffs Joseph Casillas and De’Jhontai Banks, who both purchased iPhone 7s in 2017 and claimed they began experiencing problems the following year.
“Plaintiff Casillas noticed that the audio on his phone was distorted with audible static while he attempted to play a video on his phone,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff Banks noticed that she could not hear callers unless she used the speakerphone feature on her iPhone. These are common indications of an audio integrated circuit defect.”
The suit describes the audio chip problem as the result of inadequate housing on the phones, further claiming that Apple has “long been aware of the audio integrated circuit defect” and consistently refuses to repair affected phones free of charge.
In the settlement agreement, Apple denied that the phones had audio problems and said it had done nothing inappropriate or illegal.