14 DAY TRIAL // South Korea has officially started an investigation into the way Apple handled battery degradation on several iPhone models, with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office confirming that it’s looking into possible planned obsolescence claims.
The investigation starts only a few days after the Seoul’s Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty filed a complained against Apple for reducing the performance of certain iPhone models with iOS updates, accusing the company of deliberately throttling devices to push customers to new models.
France and Italy have also launched similar investigations on Apple’s practices, and the company now risks hefty fines in both countries if found guilty of deliberate slowdowns for planned obsolescence.
Apple admitted in late December that it reduced the performance of iPhone 6 to iPhone 7 in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns on units with worn-out batteries.
While the company apologized and reduced the cost of replacing batteries from $79 to $29, tens of class-action lawsuits were started against both Apple and CEO Tim Cook for not informing of the power management tweak implemented in iOS updates.
New iOS update with battery info coming this week
Tim Cook, on the other hand, said in a recent interview that Apple actually revealed the content of new iOS versions, only that customers ignored the release notes.
“When we did put it [the software update] out, we did say what it was, but I don't think a lot of people were paying attention,” Cook said in an interview. Maybe we should have been clearer, as well. We deeply apologize for anybody that thinks we had some other kind of motivation,” the CEO added.
On the other hand, neither Apple spokespersons nor Tim Cook himself commented on the avalanche of lawsuits filed against the company following the iPhone slowdowns, but given that consumer groups and governments alike start looking into the matter, more info could be provided soon.
Apple has already confirmed that an iOS update would be shipped this week to include battery degradation information and whether a replacement is needed or not.