France probes Apple over restricting smartphone repair

France probes Apple over restricting smartphone repair

France is investigating US tech big Apple over it allegedly planning for smartphones to turn out to be outdated by means of limiting their restore, prosecutors and an affiliation mentioned on Monday.

The probe into purported deceptive industrial practices and deliberate obsolescence has been beneath method since December, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.

It follows a grievance filed by the Halt Planned Obsolescence (HOP) affiliation.

HOP mentioned it hoped the investigation would reveal the iPhone maker was “associating the serial numbers of spare parts to those of a smartphone, including via microchips, giving the manufacturer the possibility of restricting repairs by non-approved repairers or to remotely degrade a smartphone repaired with generic parts”.

The affiliation known as on Apple “to guarantee the right to repair devices under the logic of real circular economy”.

Apple France was not instantly obtainable for remark.

Apple in 2020 agreed to pay 25 million euros (then $27.4 million) for failing to inform iPhone customers that software program updates may decelerate older gadgets.

The scandal erupted in December 2017, when the US tech big admitted that its most up-to-date iOS software program was slowing the efficiency of older telephones whose battery life was deteriorating.

Source: www.anews.com.tr