Apple $AAPL agreed Tuesday to pay $250 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of deceiving consumers with advertising that promoted AI-enhanced Siri features that did not yet exist. The proposed settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, still requires a judge's approval and includes no admission of wrongdoing by Apple.
Central to the lawsuit was the claim that Apple's marketing campaign flooded the market with misleading promises about Siri improvements that had been previewed at its June 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, months before the iPhone 16 went on sale. According to court filings, plaintiffs argued that knowledge of the missing features would have deterred purchases entirely or led consumers to pay a lower price for the devices.
Roughly 37 million devices are covered under the terms of the agreement — every iPhone 16 variant along with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max purchased in the United States from June 10, 2024 through March 29, 2025. Each qualifying device carries a starting payout of $25, though the final figure may shift upward or downward — reaching a ceiling of $95 — based on claim volume and other variables. Notice will go out to customers through email or postal mail, pointing them to an online claims portal, according to The New York Times.
If approved, it would rank among the largest settlements Apple has ever reached. Among the details cited in settlement documents is a ruling by the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs, a nonprofit group. The group determined that Apple had given consumers the impression that a revamped Siri was ready to use at the time the iPhone 16 shipped — an impression it found to be inaccurate.
"We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users," Apple said in a statement.
Apple acknowledged in March 2025 that its AI upgrades to Siri were taking longer than expected. In a statement attributed to Apple spokesperson Jacqueline Roy, the company described its efforts to build a Siri capable of acting on personal context and executing tasks across applications, while conceding that the timeline had slipped beyond original expectations — a point confirmed by Wired. Within twenty-four hours, a Siri commercial featuring Bella Ramsey — in which the actress demonstrated the assistant retrieving a contact's name from a months-old meeting — was withdrawn by Apple.
Tuesday's agreement is not the first time Siri has generated significant legal liability for Apple. A class-action suit alleging that the assistant eavesdropped on users' private conversations was resolved in May 2024 for $95 million, according to Wired.
Apple is expected to unveil a revamped Siri at its annual developer conference next month, according to The New York Times.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of a nonprofit group that determined Apple had given consumers the inaccurate impression that a revamped Siri was ready to use at the time the iPhone 16 shipped. That group is BBB National Programs, not the Better Business Bureau. (BBB National Programs is a separate nonprofit from the Better Business Bureau.)