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The Italian antitrust watchdog has imposed a relatively small fine on Apple and Samsung – just a few million dollars – for deliberately slowing old phones.
Still, it's the thought that counts, huh?
In a statement issued Wednesday by the Italian Competition Authority, the Competition Guarantor Authority (AGCM), the two companies violated consumer protection laws by "encouraging customers to install updates on devices unable to adequately support them ".
Apple sentenced Apple to a fine of € 10m ($ 11.4m): € 5m for slowing the iPhone 6 with the iOS 10 update and an additional € 5m for failing to provide customers with enough information on the batteries of their devices, including maintenance and replacement of these. Apple earns millions of dollars an hour.
Samsung was fined 5 million euros for the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update for the Galaxy Note 7, but that caused a malfunction of the Note 4 due to the requirements of the upgrade.
The two companies deny having deliberately decided to slow down the old phones, but the Italian authorities were not convinced and clearly thought that it was a case of "obsolescence" intrinsically ", in which the products are designed to collapse before having sales of newer models.
Apple and Samsung have "become aware of unfair commercial practices (…) related to the release of mobile phone firmware updates that have caused serious malfunctions and dramatically reduced performance, thus accelerating the replacement process," he said. declared the regulator.
The Apple iOS 10 update was designed for the iPhone 7, but older phone owners immediately began to complain about the blocking of their phone. Apple corrected the problem in an update (10.2.1) by limiting the processor of his phone, which slowed the operation of the phone. He did not inform customers that it was what he was doing though.
Batterygate
This approach provoked further indignation and Apple finally proposed to replace used batteries from older iPhone models with newer batteries at a significantly reduced price. All this has led many countries, including France and the United States, to dig the saga.
Of course, this is Apple. Thus, while announcing the program, he also badured everyone that he had only acted in their best interest.
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"Our goal is to provide customers with the best possible experience, which includes the overall performance and extended life of their devices," the group said in a statement.
"Last year, we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE that mitigates instantaneous peaks only when necessary to prevent the device from turning off. unexpectedly in these conditions, we have extended this functionality to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2 and plan to add support for other products in the future. "
The Italian authorities see things differently. In their eyes, the two companies pushed users to download updates that they knew would disrupt the operation of the phone. And they did it without explaining the impact of the update, without sufficient support and without any way to restore the original functionality.
Samsung, for example, explained to Note 4 the users who install the Marshmallow update without informing them of "serious malfunctions due to increased hardware stress," which often resulted in expensive, out-of-warranty repairs.
Apple is sued in the United States for the slowdown in telephony, a case still in progress. He is also being sued in a similar case where the company deliberately prevented his FaceTime videoconferencing system from running on older iPhones.
Samsung has announced its intention to appeal the Italian fine, saying "disappointed" with this decision. She claims to publish only software offering its customers "the best possible experience". Apple has yet to say anything in response to its fine. ®
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