Apple Fined 25 Million Euros in France for Slowing Down Older iPhones With iOS Update

[CyberTech]

Content source

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/07/apple-fined-25m-euros-france-slowing-down-iphones/

The Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF), which is part of the country's economy ministry, concluded that Apple had failed to inform users that iOS updates to older iPhones could slow down their devices.

The DGCCRF revealed its findings in a Friday press release:

"Following an investigation by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) and after the agreement of the Public Prosecutor of Paris, the Apple group agreed to pay a fine of 25 M € in the context of a criminal transaction.

"Seized on January 5, 2018 by the Paris Prosecutor's Office to investigate the complaint of an association against Apple, the DGCCRF has shown that ‌iPhone‌ owners were not 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.

"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 models. and 7."

The investigation followed Apple's admission in 2017 that it slows down some older iPhones with degraded batteries during times of peak power usage in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns.

When the ‌iPhone‌ slowdown controversy was at its height, Apple apologized for its lack of communication and offered affected customers cut-price iPhone battery replacements. The company has always maintained that the features are designed to preserve the life of the ‌iPhone‌ for as long as possible, and were not implemented to force upgrades.

That being said, Apple has accepted an agreement with France's public prosecutor to pay the fine of 25 million euros and to publish a press release on its website for one month.

 

[Cortex]

25 million Euro will hit Apple really hard, that's only 84 iPhone 11's they have to sell

 

[bribon77]

What is a bucket of water for an Elephant?

 

[show-Zi]

Some os may cause a problem in use by the update. As a pre-payment of fines, the os is said to be provided in a form similar to free.

 

[MacDefender]

Note that they didn't get fined for slowing down the phones per se, they got fined for failing to communicate this impact to customers. It's still not illegal in any jurisdiction to push software updates that degrade the performance/capacity of a device to deal with unavoidable aging, but it is the kind of thing you need to be transparent and communicate to customers.

 

[Antus67]

Good article as I have a I phone will keep a close watch on this issue

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Some people fails to see it is just a fine, like getting a fine when ignoring a red light. Not supposed to destroy Apple... Just warning them.
And 25millions is still 25millions loss, but real cost is that users knows that is was with purpose and may not trust Apple or planned to upgrade to a new iPhone.
Bad advertisement always had an impact.

 

[MacDefender]

Some people fails to see it is just a fine, like getting a define when ignoring a red light. Not supposed to destroy Apple... Just warning them.
And 25millions is still 25millions loss, but real cost is that users knows that is was with purpose and may not trust Apple or planned to upgrade to a new iPhone.
Bad advertisement always had an impact.

Even if the money aspect seems like a slap on the wrist, it is in no company's best interest to be labeled as committing a crime, which is what happened in this case.

Just like what you said, a cell phone or speeding ticket, even if it doesn't break the bank, is likely to change your behavior.

 

[CyberTech]

Batterygate not over in Europe

Dutch site iCulture reports that the issue has now been resurrected in Europe.

A group of five European consumer organizations wants Apple to pay an amount of 60 euros per person to iPhone users. This has to do with an update from 2017 […]

The group operates under the name Euroconsumers and consists of the Belgian Test Achats, OCU (Spain), Deco-Proteste (Portugal), AltroConsumo (Italy) and Proteste (Brazil). The latter is not European, but still participates. The plan is to get Apple to pay $60 to iPhone users who feel duped because Apple is said to be ” planning obsolescence” […]

Euroconsumers may get something done. In early 2020, Apple in France was fined €25 million from the French Consumer & Market Authority. Apparently, this has prompted consumer organizations to take action. On June 11, they submitted a letter to Apple, with the aim of getting compensation for European consumers. A new letter followed on July 2. Euroconsumers have given Apple 15 days to respond and are threatening legal action.

Batterygate rumbles on with compensation demand in Europe - 9to5Mac

You might have thought that 'batterygate' – the controversy over Apple throttling iPhone performance to prolong the life of the battery – might be over ...

9to5mac.com