Apple and Samsung for the first time fined slowing down old phones

Apple and Samsung were fined € 10 million and € 5 million in Italy, respectively, for the proven fact of “planned obsolescence” of smartphones. This is the first penalty for the largest manufacturers of gadgets for a special slowdown of the old gadgets in order to push users to buy new models.

The fact of the forced slowdown of smartphones in December 2017 was recognized by Apple , and a month later a class action was filed against it in the United States . At the same time the relevant investigations began in Italy and France.

The investigation began a national competition authority. As it turned out, some smartphone software updates have a negative impact on device performance.
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The antimonopoly authority’s statement says that “Apple and Samsung are implementing unfair commercial practices” and that operating system updates “lead to serious disruptions and significantly reduce productivity, thereby speeding up the replacement of phones.”

One would assume that the slowdown of the old devices is a random "side effect" from the installation of updates, and companies do not want this effect at all and are trying to avoid it in every possible way. But it is not. The investigation showed that both firms did not provide customers with adequate information about the impact of new software "or any means of restoring the original functionality of the products."

If people knew that installing updates for the OS and programs on a smartphone would lead to slowdowns - perhaps many would have refused such an update. But the manufacturer does not allow them to do this, and after installing the update there is no easy way to roll back the changes.

For example, Samsung "advised the owners of the Galaxy Note 4 phone to install a new version of the Android operating system from Google, intended for a later version of the Galaxy Note 7." However, it turned out that after installing the new version of Android, Galaxy Note 4 smartphones began to work worse.

Similarly, Apple advised iPhone 6 owners to install an operating system designed for the iPhone 7 — and this led to problems for older model owners.

This is clearly the deliberate actions of Apple and Samsung, which fit into the outline of the planned obsolescence and are pushing users to buy new smartphones.

Both companies were issued a maximum fine of € 5 million each and ordered to post a notice on their Italian websites informing customers of the regulator’s decision. In addition, Apple was fined another € 5 million for not providing customers with clear information about the “essential” characteristics of lithium batteries, including their average lifespan, how to serve them or ultimately how to replace them in the iPhone.

In December, Apple admitted to having a secret setting in the operating system , which forcibly reduces the iPhone processor clock frequency if the battery is in operation for a long time. Tim Cook, in an interview with ABC News, said that the forced slowdown of the phone was actually done for the benefit of the users themselves and to improve the usability of the device.

When it became known about the hidden function, Apple assured that it slows down old smartphones not for planned obsolescence, but to avoid inadvertently shutting down / restarting the smartphone, taking into account the battery parameters. The charge / voltage of the battery and the ambient temperature are taken into account. The colder it is on the street and the older the battery is, the more Apple reduces the frequency of the processor. The algorithm for slowing down the processor began to work with the iOS 10.2.1 update, released in January 2017.

After that, the company reduced the cost of batteries from $ 79 to $ 29 for replacement without warranty. The cost is reduced only for a few smartphone models. Apple also added battery status information in iOS, thus allowing users to turn off processor slowdowns.

The Italian Antitrust Authority opened an investigation into customer complaints at about the same time that a similar investigation began in France, which has not yet been completed. According to French law, deliberately reducing the life of any product in order to stimulate sales is punishable by a fine of up to 5% of annual turnover or a prison term.