Apple loses appeal in Italy over iPhone slow down scandal

By Stephen Warwick
published

iPhone Battery
iPhone Battery (Image credit: Rene Ritchie / iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple has lost its appeal against an iPhone slow down ruling.
  • Italian authorities ruled that Apple should pay 10 million euros in 2018.
  • Apple was previously accused of using "unfair commercial practices," a ruling upheld by the appeal court.

Apple has lost an appeal to a court in Italy over a 10 million euro fine it received back in 2018.

The fine was issued to Apple over the iPhone 'slowdown' controversy, whereby Apple used software updates to manage iOS processes to stop unexpected iPhone shutdowns. Authorities in 2018 ruled that Apple (and Samsung) had "implemented unfair commercial practices." Now, in a new judgment from a court in the country, that ruling has been upheld.

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The full judgment is extremely technical and long-winded, however, the upshot of the judgment is found in the conclusion:

The Board believes that the Authority has correctly considered that the information relating to the battery concerns essential aspects of the device and, as such, should have been made available to consumers in accordance with the professional diligence required by companies of a world-leading group operating worldwide in the high technology sector.The conclusion of the AGCM that the omissions and insufficient information on the batteries of the iPhones by Apple until December 2017, result to be integrated with an incorrect commercial practice pursuant to art. 22 of the Consumer Code: this conclusion is based on the observation that the disclosed omission of information, relating to one of the main characteristics of the product that affected its performance and duration, led consumers to make mistakes both in the purchase decision and, above all, in that of correct use and replacement of iPhone devices.In conclusion, for all the above considerations, the appeal and the added reasons must be rejected. (Translated)

Apple will pay 7,000 euros in legal charges as a result of the unsuccessful appeal.

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9

2 Comments
  • Don’t believe agicom work fine. They were silent about huawei scandals (benchemark cheat software, fake photos of smartphone in reality taken with reflex appear ad and on website, backdoor on modem by Vodafone ecc). But they invented a sanction against Apple that is the only one to create products that work properly and fine for years. I live here , no one in italy consider agicom a real institution that help people for real. They be silent also about scandals of diesel’s cars (dieselgate). Please consider that huawei make the 5g here (because is not expensive) and agicom invented this sanction against Apple and samsung (the two brands sanctioned for didn’t be clear about batteries). Everything is easy to understand.
  • Ah. So because one got away with a “SIMILAR”, (ie not exactly the same), case the other should too? Nobody invented anything about Apple they were dishonest, period.
    Should have been 500M.