Italian antitrust regulator fined Apple 10 million euros for downsizing

The Italian antitrust regulator has now announced a 10 million euro ticket to Apple to punish Apple’s firmware updates. Also punishable by Samsung, a well-known electronics manufacturer in South Korea, the Italian antitrust agency issued a fine of 5 million euros to Samsung.

The Italian anti-monopoly regulator said after investigation:

The smartphones produced by the above companies slow down their operating speed due to operating system updates. In this way, the elimination plan is encouraged to encourage users to purchase new machines.

These manufacturers have experienced severe dysfunctions and significantly reduced performance through specific firmware updates, speeding up the process of replacing a new device with a new machine.

At the same time, the Italian antitrust agency investigation also found that these manufacturers continue to require users to download new firmware, and did not fulfill the manufacturer’s existing disclosure requirements.

That is, if the installed firmware does not fully support the device, the user should be informed in advance, and the manufacturer does not provide any means to restore the original performance.

Italian antitrust regulators explain the reasons for the fine: for Apple

For Apple’s iPhone 6~iPhone 6 P series models, Apple released iOS 10 did not inform users that they need higher requirements for batteries.

Apple did not tell users in advance when pushing the update that it might cause a shutdown after installing the version. To solve the problem, Apple released iOS version 10.2.1.

However, this version also did not tell the user to reduce the responsiveness and functionality of the device when pushing. Apple did not provide any possible full recovery measures.

Although Apple subsequently offered the replacement battery service at a discounted price, it did not explain to the user how to maintain the correct method of verifying and replacing the battery.

To this end, the Italian anti-monopoly agency decided to impose a fine of 5 million euros by penalizing Apple to reduce the speed of equipment, with a total fine of 10 million euros.

Via: MacRumors