The Antitrust Authority of our country has found the two companies guilty of artificially aging their smartphones. For them multi-million dollar fines
In France, a couple of years ago, they passed an ad hoc law to prohibit such behavior. A similar attempt was made in Italy in the last legislature, without much success. Today comes the decision of the Antitrust Authority that fines Apple and Samsung for planned obsolescence.
In simple terms, according to the authority that defends competition, the two world giants of hi-tech would have put in place actions aimed at artificially aging their devices – or build them so that they break after a few years of use – and thus forcing users to buy them again. This behavior has led the Antitrust Authority to fine Samsung €5 million and Apple €10 million (the Cupertino-based company receives a higher penalty because it did not properly inform users of the deteriorability of its lithium batteries) in a decision that is unique worldwide.
What is planned obsolescence
When we talk about planned obsolescence we refer, as quickly said in the introduction, to all those practices and production strategies implemented by companies to make electronic devices “time bombs”. By using particular materials and adopting specific manufacturing and/or maintenance techniques, companies can cause malfunctions or slowdowns that lead users to stop using their device and buy a new one. In short, the life expectancy of smartphones, TVs and various household appliances would be artificially reduced, in order to promote the sale of new products.
What Apple and Samsung have done to be fined
According to what has been established by the Italian Antitrust Authority, Apple and Samsung would have released software updates that “have caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced the performance” of smartphones, thus forcing users to buy new models, even if their old devices were still working. Specifically, Apple and Samsung allegedly adopted this practice in 2016 to slow down the performance of the Galaxy Note 4 and the iPhone 6/6 Plus and iPhone 6S/6S Plus. By forcing users to download operating system updates without providing them with adequate information, they would have rendered their smartphones unusable (or nearly so), effectively forcing them to buy a new one.
Apple, as mentioned, would not have even warned users about the deteriorability of the lithium batteries mounted by these same smartphones, which, stressed by the new operating systems, would have undermined the full functionality of the applephones.