For a couple of years now, there has been a rumour making rounds about Apple slowing down its older iPhones. And while this has never really been proven, a recent case might just have confirmed it as the truth.

Apple earlier this week agreed to pay $113 million to settle an investigation by nearly three dozen American states into the practice of slowing customers’ old iPhones. This, according to reports, was done by the tech giant in order to preserve the devices’ batteries.

The iPhone maker’s throttling efforts drew scrutiny from the public when the news made its way into the light back in 2017 in what some called “batterygate”. As expected, consumers and tech enthusiasts were stunned as they saw this as an attempt by Apple to lure them into buying newer, more expensive devices.

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Rather than disclosing the issue to consumers, Apple pushed a software update in December 2016 that altered the performance of older iPhone models.

At the time, all the company did was issue an apology to its consumers and then dropped the price of replacement batteries.

“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize,” the company said in a 2017 statement. “First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”

The states involved led by Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana opened a probe of the matter. This saw them secure a financial penalty this week as well as a legal commitment from the company to be more transparent in the future. This includes timely updates about iPhone battery health, performance and power management on its website or installation notes.