Apple agrees to pay $27 million fine for throttling performance of older iPhones

Apple might be in for a rough year especially in Europe as sources confirm the latest development in the controversial iPhone-throttling debacle of 2017. It appears that the DGCCRF, which is a French competition and fraud watchdog fined the Cupertino, California-based tech group 25 million euros (an estimated $27 million). Surprisingly, the manufacturer is reportedly willing to settle the case. This update arrives shortly after another case wherein the European Parliament urged it to switch from the Lightning connector to USB Type-C.

When this issue came to light, Apple quickly defended its actions and claimed that it was intended to benefit owners of iPhones with older batteries. Slowing down performance would allegedly prevent unexpected shutdowns and keep the handsets operational for longer. However, consumers viewed it as a way for the company to push people to buy newer models. Experts referred to the practice as "planned obsolescence" which many would agree with.

It seems that the DGCCRG likewise finds the practice deceptive for consumers. The crux of the matter is that Apple should have informed iPhone owners about the feature. It would have encouraged users to consider a battery replacement instead of an upgrade. Digital Trends noted that unlike Android firmware updates, devices on iOS have no option to rollback to an older version of the operating system.

In addition to the approximately $27 million fine it has agreed to pay, the American tech firm is required to post a specific statement on its French website and It must be kept there for a month. Translated, it says "The DGCCRF estimates that Apple committed the offence of deceptive commercial practice by omission by not revealing to consumers and users the presence of a dynamic power management system included in the iOS updates."

Even though an option to disable the feature is currently available, some consumers no longer trust the brand and have switched to other brands that run on Android.

In a related report, Apple is speculated to release another affordable iPhone model next month. Sources are calling it the iPhone SE 2, while others are saying it will be the iPhone 9. Then there are a host of other issues such as the Coronavirus outbreak and its effect on production and shipments and the European Parliament USB Type-C adoption.