France has fined Apple roughly $27 million for slowing down the performance of older iPhone models on purpose.
According to TechCrunch, France's competition and fraud watchdog (DGCCRF) fined the U.S. tech giant because it said consumers were not warned that Apple would throttle the speed of their phones as they grew older.
Per BBC, Apple confirmed back in 2017 it was intentionally slowing down some iPhones, but the company said it was only doing it to make the smartphones last longer.
After being fined by the French watchdog, Apple sent out a statement saying it has resolved the issue with the agency.
Apple now has to display a notice on its French-language website for a month as part of the agreement.
Apple says it is still intentionally slowing down older-model iPhones with the intention of allowing them to last longer.
In fact, since Apple confirmed the practice in 2017, it has applied slower speeds on several more iPhones models, including:
- iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- iPhone 8 and 8 Plus (running iOS 12.1 or higher)
- iPhone X (running iOS 12.1 or higher)
- iPhone XS, XS Max and XR (running iOS 13.1 or higher)
It's likely a matter of time until the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max get the same treatment, seeing as it's Apple's way of extending the life of their smartphones.
The setting is only activated when the battery's performance starts to decline.
Apple now offers clearer information to consumers about when performance management has been switched on, so its customers won't be shocked when performance slows.
The tech company also says the effects of performance management on newer models may be less noticeable due to their more advanced hardware and software.
iPhone users can check the current status of their battery performance by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health. Tha will display the phone's Maximum Capacity.
A feature called Optimized Battery Charging is also available on iPhones running on iOS 13 or higher. The phone learns from a user's daily charging routine so it can wait to finish charging past 80% until the user needs to use the phone.
Click here to find more ways to preserve an iPhone's battery health.
This story was originally published by Jordan Hogan on WKBW in Buffalo.
