France’s Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) says in a press release (that’s, of course, in French) that it’s fining Apple 25 million Euros (about $27 million) for “Batterygate.”
In December 2017 Apple published an apology letter to customers in regards to the brouhaha for slowing down older phones to compensate for erratic battery performance.
The tech giant offered $29 replacement batteries for those with an iPhone 6 or later. Apple also added more battery health information to iOS to let users know when the battery begins to compromise performance.
Over 60 lawsuits have been filed in regards to the matter. Apple said in a recent SEC filing in 2019 that it has set aside some money to pay for the litigation as a contingency
The DGCCRF’s press release reads: “Following an investigation by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) and after the agreement of the Public Prosecutor of Paris, the Apple group agreed to pay a fine of 25 M € in the context of a criminal transaction.
“Seized on January 5, 2018 by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the complaint of an association against Apple, the DGCCRF has shown that iPhone owners were not informed that the updates of the iOS operating system (10.2.1 and 11.2) they installed were likely to slow down the operation of their device.
“These updates, released during 2017, included a dynamic power management device which, under certain conditions and especially when the batteries were old, could slow down the functioning of the iPhone 6, SE models. and 7.”
