Apple fails appeal of 10M euro iPhone battery slowdown fine in Italy
Apple has failed to overturn a 10 million euro ($11.1M) fine levied against it in 2018 by Italy, after a court rejected an appeal against the findings of an investigation over iPhone slowdowns caused by software updates.
In October 2018, Italy's antitrust regulator the Autorit Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) issued Apple a fine, following a probe into complaints about device slowdowns. The allegations, which were also made against Samsung at the time and involved a reduction in performance instigated by software updates, to improve overall device stability.
Apple's 10 million euro fine was formed by two components. The first 5 million euros was the same as levied against Samsung, but Apple had a second 5 million euro fine for failing to advise to customers how to properly maintain or replace their iPhone batteries.
In filings discovered by setteBIT on Twitter and first reported by iMore, Apple's attempt to appeal the judgment was rejected by the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio. Apple offered in its complaint a number of areas it objected to, including claims there were not enough technical tests of alleged damage, a lack of proof, misrepresentation of facts, and a serious error in logic by the investigators, among other issues.
Despite Apple's protestations, the court believed the regulator was right in its consideration that information relating to battery usage and wear should have been made available to consumers. The court also rejected complaints about the regulator's practice in the investigation and prosecution, and ultimately denied Apple the overall appeal.
As part of the ruling, Apple is also due to pay the costs of the appeal's judgment, amounting to 7 thousand euro ($7,773).
Following the discovery of the iOS update throttling, Apple apologized for the decision to implement such a measure, instigated a program that temporarily reduced the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29, then added Battery Health options as part of a later update.
In October 2018, Italy's antitrust regulator the Autorit Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) issued Apple a fine, following a probe into complaints about device slowdowns. The allegations, which were also made against Samsung at the time and involved a reduction in performance instigated by software updates, to improve overall device stability.
Apple's 10 million euro fine was formed by two components. The first 5 million euros was the same as levied against Samsung, but Apple had a second 5 million euro fine for failing to advise to customers how to properly maintain or replace their iPhone batteries.
In filings discovered by setteBIT on Twitter and first reported by iMore, Apple's attempt to appeal the judgment was rejected by the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio. Apple offered in its complaint a number of areas it objected to, including claims there were not enough technical tests of alleged damage, a lack of proof, misrepresentation of facts, and a serious error in logic by the investigators, among other issues.
Despite Apple's protestations, the court believed the regulator was right in its consideration that information relating to battery usage and wear should have been made available to consumers. The court also rejected complaints about the regulator's practice in the investigation and prosecution, and ultimately denied Apple the overall appeal.
As part of the ruling, Apple is also due to pay the costs of the appeal's judgment, amounting to 7 thousand euro ($7,773).
Following the discovery of the iOS update throttling, Apple apologized for the decision to implement such a measure, instigated a program that temporarily reduced the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29, then added Battery Health options as part of a later update.
Comments
Apple is dead!
How will they ever pay a €10M fine?
Apple goofed with its communication (as it often does) and if there is a complaint placed against some Apple (or any other vendor) where lack of communication (or clear communication) is deemed to be in play, it runs far higher risks.
Case in point, the truly wireless earbuds industry could be in for a whack if someone were to complain that they were never fully and clearly informed of the 'disposable' nature of the devices.
An asterisk pointing to some greyed out text at the foot of the product page would probably not satisfy any consumer organisations.
Having users all on the current system would be fine if OS updates didn't break things from the previous release but that isn't going to happen (ever) while Apple remains on a yearly upgrade path. That is without touching on non-bug related issues like features that are dropped or system-wide changes which actively stop apps from working.
The best option is for the user to decide and if things screw up, let them effortlessly roll the update back. None of that re-installing the entire system from a backup lark.
Sometimes bugs are so stupid and unforeseeable that you get bitten.
Years ago ALL of my smart search folders got borked by Apple because someone made a bad localisation error and 'translated' a string that should never have been translated. That issue never got fixed and I promptly dumped iPhoto and smart searches forever.
I always keep all of my iOS devices up to date, running the newest updates soon after they are released and I've never encountered any big issues. Nothing is perfect and there will always be a few users who encounter some niche issue, but that doesn't affect the vast majority of users.
Apple obviously intends for iOS to be as simple to use as possible, because the average user is simple, they aren't techies.
There is a lot in iOS that is far from simple in fact, and very unintuitive. Text selección and handling (a core use for everyone) was terrible for years and many would argue is still poorly implemented.
It is true that not using iOS heavily on a daily basis and coming from Android is a jarring experience due to the lack of options available (frustratingly so) but there are areas where iOS is difficult for techies and non-techies alike.
Taking screenshots varies from model to model and, the last time I checked, required pressing different buttons. Still!
Sending files directly to the device in front of you via BT wasn't possible either the last time I checked because Apple chose not to include the necessary BT profile. A profile it supports on my macOS.
For years iOS couldn't efficiently handle things like email attachments.
For years I had multiple problems getting AirDrop to work.
My AppleTV leaves me in Apple hell, refusing to allow me to log in with my AppleID even though the 'issue' is known to everybody that could have fixed it. It then spams me with incessant notices to input codes and promptly buttons down the hatches as too many requests have been generated.
Things can be simplified down to the basics but not at the cost of never being able to expose more advanced functionality should the user require it.
anyway, my main point was the increasing interference into businesses the moment they grow to a certain size. Which is funny, because the actual reason they grow from insignificance into a major player is because of innovation and quality that obviously appealed to the consumers, and which thrived in absence of being “regulated”. From a certain size on this appears not be ok anymore.
On testing, It is literally impossible to test for everything, and sometimes you get whacked late in the day. As it is I never upgrade to anything until it has been out for a long while and often don't bother at all. For my needs over time, air gapped Tiger and Snow Leopard would suit me fine for many things but needing to have certain other elements and getting new systems with a new purchase makes it difficult to 'remain still' .
On the Mac side I once got bitten by a terrible Visual Basic breakdown that involved different versions of Office (Windows and Mac) and OSX.
I was in touch with the Mac Business Unit who were mailing the people at Apple and once again the problem looked to be a localisation problem but tied into the Mac Office VB object model, which had very little to do with the Windows VB object model. The problem only raised its very ugly head when the file was touched by a windows user and came back to the Mac. An OSX update detonated the problem. It never got fixed. Not long after, VB got dropped by the Mac Business Unit but by that time I had given recommendations to kill that project on the Mac side.
As an aside, It is a miracle that cross platform VB ever worked reliably given the absolutely huge differences between the object models.
Regarding the rollback: after the complaints rose (Spawned by articles rather than real life experiences IMO) Apple introduced a software switch for this feature. So it’s basically there.
a) you buy a piece of tech “as is”.
Legislation appears to side with those people and put more and more penalties in place for “failing to properly inform” the consumer. Or for “planned obsolescence”. “Failed to comply with right to repair”.