Apple and Samsung fined for slowing down older phones2018-10-26 11:10 by DanielaTags: Apple, Samsung
Apple and Samsung have been fined millions of euros each for intentionally slowing down older phones. The ruling by Italy's competition and markets authority (AGCM) is believed to be the first against the manufacturers following accusations of "planned obsolescence" to encourage the purchase of new phones. The AGCM launched an investigation into the two tech giants in January after customers complained that certain software upgrades were having a detrimental effect on older devices. The AGCM is levying a €5 million fine ($5.7 million) against Apple for problems that occurred on various models of the iPhone 6 when users installed iOS 10, which was developed for the iPhone 7. Because the new iOS required greater energy demands, those using it on older iPhones experienced unexpected shutdowns. The company's fix, which came as an update in 10.2.1, was released without warning customers that it would throttle CPUs on older devices with aging batteries in order to prevent the occurrences of these random shutdowns. Apple will have to pay another €5 million fine for not giving customers information about their devices' batteries, such as average lifespan and the procedures for how to maintain and replace them. Samsung's fine is also €5 million ($5.7 million). The organization says that when Samsung put out the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update — meant for the newer Galaxy Note 7 — those who installed it on the Note 4 found the firmware was too demanding for the phone, leading it to malfunction in certain cases. This made people have to pay high out-of-pocket repair costs to fix the phone, as the Note 4 was two years old by then and out of warranty. Apple has denied that phones were slowed in order to get customers to buy new models. The company didn't respond to a request for comment. Samsung denied it slowed down phones and said it will appeal the decision. Read more -here-
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