Apple has been fined €25 million (£21 million) for deliberately slowing down iPhones.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) – the French competition and fraud watchdog – fined the tech giant for not informing Apple customers that “installing iOS updates (10.2.1 and 11.2) could slow down their devices”.
Following the ruling, the DGCCRF said: “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 €25m in the context of a criminal transaction.
“Seized on 5 January, 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 installing iOS updates (10.2.1 and 11.2) could slow down their devices.”
They also added: “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.”
In 2017, the case of Apple slowing down phones arose when Apple admitted implementing such measures which led the company to promise to be more open with customers in the future.
“Our actions were all in service of the users, I can’t stress that enough” Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said at the time, “maybe we should have been clearer at a point in time but our actions were always the purest.”