Apple has been fined €25 million ($41 million) by the French competition watchdog for deliberately slowing down old phones.
The fine is not so much for actually slowing down the devices, rather Apple has been accused of not informing customers certain updates could slow their phones.
In 2017 Apple confirmed it slowed old iPhone models as a way to “prolong the life” of devices.
However, the French watchdog said Apple did not inform customers that “installing iOS updates (10.2.1 and 11.2) could slow down their devices”.
Additionally, the group said Apple “committed the crime of deceptive commercial practice by omission”.
The iPhone 6, SE models and 7 were all shown to have been slowed down.
The French group also found users were unable to revert their phones to previous versions of operating systems, leaving many customers to “change their batteries or even buy a new phone”.
Following the original controversy in 2017, Apple reduced the price of battery replacements for out-of-warranty devices from $119 to $39. It now costs $79.
Apple still applies the “performance throttling” technology to existing models, although performance is only affected if Apple detects a concern
Apple has reportedly accepted the fine.
