Apple previously got hit with a fine for deliberately tampering with the battery performance of older iPhones like the iPhone 6. Now, according to reports by SamMobile, Samsung received a fine of 5.7 million dollars for slowing down older handsets via updates.
- The Italian Authority for Market and Competition just issued a $5.7 million fine to Samsung.
- The fine is tied to the “Samsung slow down” — the drop in performance smartphones sometimes show after receiving new updates.
- Apple’s “Batterygate” was similar in practice. In fact, the Italian watchdog group also fined Apple $11.5 million.
As per reports, the Italian watchdog group claims that Samsung intentionally pushes updates that cause older models of their Android devices to drop in performance.
Their investigation found that Samsung’s update practices “caused serious dysfunctions and reduced performance significantly, thereby accelerating the process of replacing them.”
Samsung has also been accused of neglecting to inform customers about the potential impact of the smartphone updates as well as neglecting to provide a way to restore the original functionality of the device(s).
In 2017 when Apple when Apple got hit with a fine for 10 million euros (~$11.5 million USD), via MacRumors, Samsung was quick to state that their company would not and has never intentionally slowed down any of their devices. These reports indicate otherwise.
Samsung has yet to release any official statement surrounding the controversy. However, given the media coverage we should expect one soon.