Apple is facing a criminal suit in France over iPhone slowdown admission

Apple’s problems with the iPhone’s battery and performance slowdown issue may just have just gotten worse.

It was discovered that Apple was deliberately slowing down iPhones for users ranging from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 7 once their batteries reached a certain level of degradation. This was reportedly done in order to preserve the lifetime of the smartphones and prevent unexpected shutdowns. Apple confirmed this assessment.

Now,  a criminal lawsuit has been brought against Apple in France by HOP (Halte à l’Obsolescence Programmée.)

The firm is contending that Apple is forcing obsolescence of their phones by slowing down iPhones with an update of the operating system deliberately done to push Apple customers to upgrade.

The strength of the arguments brought will most likely rely in part on whether the battery degradation and its accompanying slowdown is one unique to Apple, or whether it is a common practice in the Smartphone Industry. HOP will be questioning why Apple has been silent about this, and why no other manufacturers run into this problem.

According to a report by The Verge, smartphone OEMs HTC and Motorola do not slow down their smartphones CPU depending on the age of the battery.

Apple has also fought against measures by users to make it easier to repair their phones and replace their batteries with help from third-party service centers.

While there is a chance Apple’s intentions may have been good here, the firm will likely face this and other lawsuits to determine whether the conduct was appropriate or not in the fallout.