Apple has deliberately throttled the performance of older iPhones. The Parisian consumer association harshly criticizes the technology group for this, but the technology group has a reason.
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Apple has been fined in France for “misleading business practices”.
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At first it was just a rumor. Whenever a new iPhone comes onto the market, the performance of the older models decreases rapidly. The battery is weakening, the speed is suddenly noticeably slower. The phenomenon was hotly debated in tech forums, and users around the world got excited.
France has now fined the technology company Apple for the targeted reduction in the performance of iPhones. According to the Paris competition authority, the American company has to pay 25 million euros. The investigation involved allegations of “planned product death” – that is, a short lifespan for the cell phone in order to persuade customers to buy it again.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumers and Anti-Fraud (DGCCRF) in the French Ministry of Economic Affairs accused Apple of “misleading business practices”. Now the group has agreed to the penalty payment as part of a settlement. Apple welcomed the agreement. The group wants to ensure that “iPhones last as long as possible,” it said.
Apple’s explanation
The Paris consumer association Hop spoke of a “historic victory against the scandalous practice of disposable products”. He had got the case rolling. Specifically, the French competition authorities accuse Apple of not informing its customers that updates to the iOS operating system slowed their iPhones significantly.
In Italy, the competition keepers had already fined Apple ten million euros in autumn 2018, Samsung had to pay five million euros. As early as 2017, Apple had admitted to slowing down the speed of older smartphones. According to the company, the group only wanted to extend the battery life.
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