Apple fined €25M in France for slowing down iPhones without informing users

Recently, the Cupertino giant Apple has been fined over its controversial software update that slowed down iPhone 6, iPhone 7, and iPhone SE devices. Notably, France’s Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption, and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) fined the tech giant with €25 million.

DGCCRF in a press release said:

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“Seized on January 5, 2018, by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the complaint of an association against Apple, the DGCCRF has indeed shown that iPhone owners had not been informed that the updates of the iOS operating system (10.2.1 and 11.2) they installed were likely to slow down the operation of their device,”

Additionally, Apple will also have to display a press release on its website for one month. This controversy first emerged back in 2017 when the user found out that the latest version of an iOS software update (10.2.1 and 11.2) was throttling the performance of older iPhones. However, Apple admitted that the feature was designed to prevent unexpected shut down as batteries in the iPhone degrade over time.

DGCCRF, continued:

“These updates, released during 2017, included a dynamic power management device which, under certain conditions and especially when the batteries were old, could slow down the functioning of the iPhone 6, SE, and 7 models. Unable to revert to the previous version of the operating system, many consumers would have been forced to change their batteries or even buy a new phone.”

The DGCCRF reports that it filed its findings with the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office in 2019. As per the conclusion the lack of information to consumers constituted a misleading commercial practice by omission.

While it is technically fine, the company failed to inform users about capping performances on some devices. Later, the company apologised and introduced ‘Battery Health’ software to check the capacity of the device’s battery. Also, the company reduced the battery replacement cost to just $29 (approx €27) for the whole of 2018, down from $79 (approx €72).

It’s worth mentioning that Apple accepted to pay €25 million fine and has published a statement on its official website.

Main image credit: Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock

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