A French regulator today revealed it'd fined Apple didn't warn customers, the ruling
goes, it essentially lied by omission to get users to buy new devices. The fine comes
from the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer affairs and Fraud
Prevention(DGCCRF), a competition and fraud watchdog. It accused the company
specifically of failing to warn users that iOS versions 10.2.1 and 11.2 would slow down
the 6, 7, and SE models. The DGCCRF released an announcement revealing that Apple
had agreed to pay the fine. The French Apple site also displays an announcement about
the ruling: We've known for almost three years that the company deliberately throttles
older iPhones via these power management features. It was originally discovered by
researchers at Geekbench, and was acknowledged by Apple after several users
corroborated the reports. It's claimed in a statement (via Mashable) that the purpose of
the restrictions was to keep the iPhones from shutting down as the battery degraded.
Sounds well and good, but let's just say the company wasn't exactly trumpeting the
purpose of this feature, nor that you could prevent it by just getting a new battery for
your device. Instead, it allowed users to come to the conclusion their device had aged
past the point of usefulness and needed to be replaced. The DGCCRF said that, since
users weren't warned about the throttling, and weren't allowed to revert to their
previous version of iOS either, "this lack of information to consumers constituted a
misleading commercial practice by omission." Apple's later offered replacement
batteries at a steep discount in an attempt to recapture users' favor. It also
implemented clearer battery health features, so you don't have to just assume the
problem is your device.