The French Fraud and Competition Supervision Authority has fined Apple with 25 million euros (27 million US dollars) for intentionally slowing older iPhones without clarifying this to consumers.
The French watchdog, DGCCRF, said consumers were not warned before slowing down their phones. And Apple confirmed in 2017 that it had deliberately slowed down some iPhones, but said: The aim was to "extend the life" of the devices.
Before Apple admitted that it had slowed down phones, many customers were complaining that the company had slowed older iPhones to encourage people to upgrade when a new version was released.
In 2017, the company confirmed that it slowed down some models with age, but not to encourage people to upgrade. She added that the lithium-ion batteries present in the devices have become less able to provide the current peak requirements with age, which may result in the unexpected shutdown of the phones, so this step was to protect its electronic components. Then the company released a software update for the phones: iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE to "facilitate" battery performance.
The French watchdog said: iPhone owners "have not been notified that installing updates 10.2.1 and 11.2 from iOS could slow their devices." As part of the agreement, Apple must display a notice on its site in French for a month. As for the text of the notice, "Apple committed a deceptive commercial practice by omission, and agreed to pay the fine."
It should be noted that Apple can still slow down its phones, especially after the confirmation of the practice in 2017 and continue with more iPhones, including: iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus running version 12.1 of the iOS system S, iPhone 10, iPhone 10 S, iPhone 10 S Max, and iPhone 10 R running iOS 13.1.
"The effects of performance management on these modern models may be less clear due to their more advanced hardware and software design," Apple said.
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