It was recently reported that Apple had been hit with a fine for slowing down its older phones. However as it turns out Apple isn’t alone in receiving this fine because Samsung has also been hit with a similar fine for apparently issuing updates that allegedly slowed down the performance of its older phones.The Italian Competition Authority claims that both Apple and Samsung encouraged its users to update their phones despite the updates not being “adequately supported by their devices”, and that neither company provided customers with an “effective way to recover the full functionality of their devices,” thus forcing customers to purchase new phones.
Samsung has since issued a statement claiming that they plan to appeal the decision. “We are disappointed with the Italian Competition Authority … decision. Samsung did not issue any software update that reduced the Galaxy Note 4’s performance. In contrast, Samsung has always released software updates enabling our customers to have the best experience possible.”
Apple had previously been accused of slowing down its phones, although the company’s defense was that they slowed the phones down due to aging batteries which would force devices to shut off at random. Apple has since launched a battery replacement program that is priced significantly cheaper than what they normally charge.