“A French prosecutor has launched a preliminary investigation of U.S. tech giant Apple over alleged deception and planned obsolescence of its products following a complaint by a consumer organisation, a judicial source said on Monday,” Yann Le Guernigou reports for Reuters. “The investigation, opened on Friday, will be led by French consumer fraud watchdog DGCCRF, part of the Economy Ministry, the source said.”
“Apple acknowledged last month that it takes some measures to reduce power demands – which can have the effect of slowing the processor – in some older iPhone models when a phone’s battery is having trouble supplying the peak current that the processor demands,” Le Guernigou reports. “Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them.”
Le Guernigou reports, “Apple already faces lawsuits in the United States over accusations of defrauding iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of this French investigation’s merits or lack thereof (good luck proving anything, DGCCRF), what a ridiculous unforced error on Apple’s part!
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