> “Apple denied wrongdoing and settled the nationwide case to avoid the burdens and costs of litigation, court papers show.”
That's literally the text used by everyone that settles. Apple employs enough lawyers to populate a small country. Nobody with that kind of legal firepower gives up a lawsuit by settling for a million of $300 million and up to $500 million for no good reason.
They settled for the same reasons everyone settles:
1. Because they can afford to pay.
2. Because they know they're going to lose (and they would probably have to pay more and may even be punished in some other ways, on top of that).
It's obvious I can't prove this myself, but they didn't disclose it and only did so when their hand was forced by third parties investigating and after this settlement.
I mean, what would they have to do to be assumed malicious, in this case? If basically losing a class action lawsuit is not enough, what is? Tim Cook coming up on stage and admitting it?
It's not even their first example of thinly veiled for-profit malicious moves, such as the removal of the headphone jack (presented at the time as due to space reasons, reason immediately debunked by many people disassembling phones).