Apple agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed that the company's chief executive, Tim Cook, was involved in deceiving shareholders by hiding information that iPhone sales had significantly decreased in the Chinese smartphone market. The preliminary settlement agreement was filed on Friday, March 15, in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California. This settlement agreement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. In January 2019, Apple made an unexpected announcement of its intention to slash its quarterly revenue forecast to $9 billion. The company claimed that this decision was made due to tensions in the area of trade relations between the United States and China. In November 2018, Tim Cook told investors about the decline in smartphone sales of the company in the markets of several countries. In this context, he noted that the negative dynamic is associated with the weakening of national currencies.