Apple is set to pay out $250 million to settle a major class-action lawsuit accusing the tech giant of overselling the capabilities of its Apple Intelligence platform — particularly a long-promised AI-powered upgrade to Siri that consumers say never fully arrived.
According to the BBC, the proposed settlement, filed on Tuesday, May 5, in California federal court, stems from multiple lawsuits claiming that Apple marketed its AI tools as a key reason to buy the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 lineup, despite several headline features either launching late, underperforming, or not being available at all when the devices hit stores.
The lawsuits were later consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. A judge still has to approve the agreement.
Under the settlement terms, U.S. customers who purchased eligible iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 models between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025, could receive between $25 and $95 per device, depending on the number of claims filed. Apple denied wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
The case lands at a complicated moment for Apple as the company tries to keep pace in the escalating artificial intelligence arms race. Rivals like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI aggressively pushed generative AI products into the mainstream while Apple took a slower approach centered around privacy and device integration.
Apple first introduced Apple Intelligence during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, positioning it as the company’s answer to tools like ChatGPT.
One of the biggest selling points was a more advanced Siri capable of understanding personal context, navigating apps, and assisting users with tasks across multiple platforms. Apple also promoted AI-generated notification summaries, writing assistance tools, and smarter email features.
In one widely circulated advertisement, actor Bella Ramsey used Siri to remember the name of someone they had met months earlier.
But according to the lawsuits, those features either arrived much later than expected or failed to work as advertised. Court filings allege Apple “deceived millions of consumers into spending hundreds of dollars on a phone they did not need, based on features that do not exist.”
The Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division also reportedly found that Apple’s “available now” marketing language created the impression that the upgraded Siri was included at launch when it was not.
Apple later acknowledged delays publicly. In a March 2025 statement, spokesperson Jacqueline Roy said the company had been working on “a more personalized Siri” with deeper app integration and contextual awareness but admitted it would take “longer than we thought” to release the features.
Shortly afterward, Apple reportedly pulled the Bella Ramsey commercial tied to the enhanced Siri rollout.
Apple spokeswoman Marni Goldberg defended the company’s broader AI rollout in a statement, saying, “Since the launch of Apple Intelligence, we have introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms.”
She added that Apple chose to settle the matter to remain focused on “delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”
The settlement marks the second major Siri-related payout Apple has faced in roughly a year. In 2025, the company also agreed to pay $95 million to resolve claims that Siri improperly recorded private conversations.
Meanwhile, Apple has continued to reshuffle its AI strategy behind the scenes, reportedly retiring AI chief John Giannandrea and moving toward integrating Google’s Gemini technology into future Siri updates.
