French Watchdog Fines Apple $27 Million For Slowing Down Old iPhones Without Users Consent
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), a competition and fraud watchdog has fined Apple €25 million (slightly over $27 million) for throttling old iPhones without warning its users.
The watchdog said the company failed to warn users of the iPhone 6, 7, and SE that iOS versions 10.2.1 and 11.2 will throttle their devices.
Since Apple was busted slowing down old iPhones, almost three years have already passed. Researchers at GeekBench discovered the company’s new trick that they were allegedly using to make old iPhone users slow so that users can buy new devices. More reports came out later confirming the same.
The company has in the past defended itself claiming that the throttling was to help prevent these models from “unexpectedly shutting down” as the battery continued to degrade. Degradation could make the battery weak and thus incapable of handling peak iOS performance, according to the company. Apple implemented this as part of the power management features.
Apple didn’t allow users to revert to the previous iOS versions, either, and in that manner, the DGCCRF said lack of this information “constituted a misleading commercial practice by omission.”
In users own perspective, it was damn time to upgrade to a newer iPhone model since the old one seemed to have outlived its usefulness.
The company has agreed to pay the fine.
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