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France's consumer fraud group on Friday imposed a 25 million-euros fine on Apple for deliberately slowing down certain older iPhone models with a software update in 2017.
The Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF), which is part of the country's economy ministry, concluded that Apple had failed to inform users that iOS updates to older iPhones could slow down their devices, Macrumors reported.
"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," it added.
However, it also apologised for not communicating to users properly and offered affected customers cut-price iPhone battery replacements.
"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," the DGCCRF statement said.
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