Remember when Apple throttled iPhones in order to prevent crashes caused by worn-down batteries? We called it Batterygate, and the French government is calling it what it is: criminal.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF), a French consumer watchdog part of the Ministry of Economy, began investigating Apple in 2018 under the country’s so-called planned obsolescence law, at the request of the association Halte à l’obsolescence programmée (HOP). HOP alleged that by deliberately slowing down iPhones—and not telling consumers—that Apple was incentivizing users to upgrade before they needed to. After a year-long investigation, the DGCCRF has fined Apple €25 million (about $27.4 million). Apple has agreed to pay the fine in order to end the matter instead of going to court. It will also display a press release as a banner on its French website for one year.
Apple claimed that their throttling was not an attempt to force upgrades; instead, it was done to prolong the life of the phones. They offered customers discounted battery replacements for the rest of 2018, but between long wait times and over a year of silence, it didn’t stop hordes of lawsuits from coming their way. (Maybe if they hadn’t been so secretive about the throttling, or been so hostile to user-replaceable batteries, or hadn’t designed such a faulty product in the first place…we might have been more sympathetic.)
This is the first victory under France’s planned obsolescence law, and it’s a big one. While $27.4 million may seem like couch-cushion change to a company like Apple, this is a big neon sign to electronics manufacturers that planned obsolescence will not be tolerated—meaning consumers (and the environment) may get their big break after all.
댓글 6개
All Macbook’s working at about 20% of full performance without a battery. How to fix it?
axet - 답글
Hilarious. They got what they deserved! I was also an owner of the Samsung Note 5 (yes, remember that dinosaur?), it was the Note BEFORE the exploding note 7, and they skipped the 6 so that the S series would line up nicely. Thus my Note 5 was from the era of the S6 releases. However, after updating to the latest android over the years, the battery life slowly declined to MAYBE 1/4th of a 12 hour day. Like 3-4 hours with the screen on…… I knew it was not like that in the beginning. Thankfully ODIN and android sdk tools are some things I’ve learned to understand, and one day I flashed the original android build that shipped with the device, prior to all of samsung’s bloating. Well, the battery returned to about 6-8 hours of screen life as I (sort of) remember it being. For non techies, this is what we call CPU throttle, and basically the later versions of android (in high performance mode - aka full screen resolution QuadHD) upped the CPU clock to way higher than it needed to be for that battery. RIP
Nicholas Narverud - 답글
All good and well fining Apple but what about their customers? Who gets the £25 million?
Are the customers getting an apology? or indeed an amount to say sorry for the lying and cheating… Sorry your phone was running so slow….
What a load of *******
As for replacement batteries… thats a total laugh!
Apple have the batteries produced for much less than they offer to the customer for a discounted price of £25. They dont recompense the customer for the time or fuel of the round journey to the local Apple store either.
So in truth Apple dont give a **** about their customers! As long as they dont loose out.
howard - 답글
Sorry your phone is slow and changing the battery didn’t help once the new software downgrade upgrade went in, here’s a nice new shiny phone, only cost you $1500 for our causing you trouble. See you next year when the new OS semi-bricks the phone you just got to replace the one we semi-bricked before…
Remember when you bought an apple product and expected it to last and run a decade? That’s why I made the switch from those other guys… Silly me, eh?
lassenforge - 답글
25 million euros out of a trillion dollar company. I doubt they're phased
ironman0002005 - 답글
A paltry fine like this will change absolutely nothing. They should have required all affected users be provided with a new handset of their choosing via a simple online ordering process. And what is the French Govt going to do with this pocket change - provide parliament members with free expresso for 6 mos
John Grzeskowiak - 답글