Apple’s $310 Million iPhone Settlement Rejected on Appeal (1)

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday rejected Apple Inc.'s $310 million settlement of claims that the tech giant disguised certain iPhone battery defects by throttling their system performance.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a decision approving the agreement, which handed more than $80 million to counsel for the iPhone users who led the case. Although a lower court judge “took great care” in evaluating the deal, he applied the wrong legal standard, the appeals court said.

Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen, writing for the Ninth Circuit, said there was no need for the ...