Apple agreed Tuesday to a $250 million settlement in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, over claims that it falsely advertised the Apple Intelligence features it was rolling out on recent iPhones. The deal, which still needs a judge’s approval, comes after consumers said Apple led them to believe the suite was more capable than it turned out to be.
People who bought an iPhone 16 or certain iPhone 15 models between June 2024 and March 2025 may be eligible to receive up to $95 per device, according to. The features at issue first shipped on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max in June 2024, before the Apple Intelligence-native iPhone 16 line arrived later in 2024.
The settlement lands at a moment when Apple is still trying to repair expectations around its AI push. Last year, the company acknowledged that AI upgrades to Siri were not going to arrive on schedule. Apple said it had been working on a more personalized Siri with better awareness of personal context and the ability to take action within and across apps, then later pulled a Bella Ramsey ad that summed up that vision. Craig Federighi also said Apple was working on a “version 2” of the new Siri that would behave in the personalized ways consumers expected.
The lawsuit was part of the fallout from Apple’s own admission that Siri’s AI improvements were delayed, a problem that grew more visible as ChatGPT reset consumer expectations for what an AI assistant should do. In a statement from Marni Goldberg, Apple said it had “introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms” and said the company had “resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”
The settlement may close one legal fight, but it does not end the larger one Apple faces: proving that its AI features can arrive on the timeline and in the form it has promised. If the court signs off, the next question is not whether Apple can market an AI future, but whether buyers will keep believing it.
