Amaya Toman Apple has been fined millions of euros in Europe. Agency Reuters reported that the Cupertino company had been fined by the Italian antitrust authority for deliberately slowing down smartphones, which countless disgruntled customers had complained about.
Not only Apple, but also Samsung earned a fine of 5,7 million euros. The fines were issued based on complaints about the intentional slowing down of mobile devices by both companies. Apple was also fined another five million for failing to provide its customers with clear enough information regarding the maintenance and replacement of batteries in their devices.
In its statement, the antimonopoly authority said that the firmware updates by Apple and Samsung caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced the performance of the devices, thereby speeding up the process of replacing them. The aforementioned statement also states that none of the companies provided their customers with adequate information about what the software can do. Users were also not sufficiently informed about the ways in which they could restore the functionality of their devices. Customers of both companies complained that the companies knowingly used software that reduced the performance of the devices. The purpose of this action was to try to get users to buy new devices.
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Dan Pražák At the beginning of the affair was a discussion thread on the Reddit network, which contained, among other things, evidence that the operating system iOS 10.2.1 really slows down some iOS devices. Geekbench also confirmed the results in its test, and Apple later confirmed the complaints, but did not take any action in this direction. A little later, the Cupertino company issued a statement saying that older iPhones with a not-so-functional battery could experience unexpected crashes.
Apple said its goal is to provide the best customer experience possible. Part of this user experience, according to Apple, is also the overall performance and longevity of their devices. The statement further mentions the degraded performance of lithium-ion batteries in conditions such as low temperature or low charge capacity, which can result in unexpected device shutdowns.
Will the authorities then distribute the collected money among all "affected" customers? ?