Some product launches come with a countdown clock. Others, according to a class of phone buyers, came with a promise that never finished loading.
The claim window is now open in Landsheft, et al. v. Apple Inc., a class action in which Apple agreed to pay $250 million to resolve allegations that it misled customers about the AI-powered features of its voice assistant. The plaintiffs alleged they bought new phones expecting certain smart-assistant capabilities that never arrived. iPhone users that qualify can visit SmartphoneAISettlement.com to submit a claim.
Class counsel is billing the deal as the biggest false advertising settlement on record.
The class covers original purchasers of certain recent-model iphones: the 15 Pro, the 15 Pro Max, and every model in the 16 lineup, bought between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025. The phone had to be bought for personal or professional use, not for resale. Each eligible device gets its own payment, so one person with two qualifying phones has two claims.
Each valid claim starts at $25 per device. Depending on how many claims come in, among other factors, that figure could climb as high as $95 or drop below $25. That's how claims-made settlements work. The fund is fixed, so the size of each slice depends on how many people show up to the table.
Apple, for its part, has denied the allegations and declined to comment. The settlement agreement states that it shall "not be construed in any fashion as an admission of liability or wrongdoing." Paying a quarter of a billion dollars while admitting nothing is a time-honored tradition in class action settlements, and this one is no exception.
The claims window closes Dec. 21, 2026. A federal court in San Jose will hold a hearing on Feb. 24, 2027 to decide whether to give the settlement final approval.
For years, "coming soon" has been the tech industry's favorite phrase. This settlement is a reminder that when the promise of a feature becomes the reason someone buys the product, the feature is expected to actually come. Somewhere, a voice assistant is still saying it's not sure it understands. The buyers understood just fine.
