Apple Fined $27 Million In France For Slowing Down Old iPhones

Back in 2017, Apple intentionally throttled the performance of older iPhones to preserve its battery life. Even though it wasn’t a noticeable change for some, a lot of users did find it inconvenient.

And, Apple also admitted to the fact soon enough – which did not leave a good impression with the iPhone users.

For obvious reasons, some switched to Android smartphones but some consumers in France ended up complaining that to their respective consumer affairs agency.

In France, the General Directorate of Competition, Consumption & Repression of Frauds (DGCCRF) is responsible for all such consumer complaints. It seems like – now, in 2020, hit Apple with a fine of about 25 million Euros which roughly converts to about 27 million dollars.

Even though Apple explained that in order to preserve the battery life they had to throttle the performance, the consumers saw this move as a desperate attempt to encourage users to upgrade their iPhone – which is potentially a possible reason.

The French watchdog agency believes that Apple should have informed the consumers before pushing the update to throttle the performance. Hence, it was not justified to explain why they did it, only after getting caught with that.

It looks like Apple agreed to pay the fine. We will publish a follow-up if anything interesting develops for this story.

Ankush Das
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: apple, france, iPhone, Social Hit