Italian authorities have fined Apple and Samsung for promoting their latest software updates, which led to malfunctions in their phones and ultimately forced users to buy new devices.
In January of this year, Italy's antitrust watchdog conducted separate investigations into Apple and Samsung to determine whether they were deliberately using software updates to slow down their phones.
Now, the commission has issued a statement claiming that both companies have violated consumer rules and are subject to sanctions for it.
Apple was fined €5 million ($5.7 million) for various issues on the iPhone 6, which were caused when users installed iOS 10 – which was developed for the iPhone 7.
Since the new iOS consumes more power, people with older iPhones have encountered unexpected performance issues.
The company released a fix for this, via the 10.2.1 update. But it didn't warn users that it would drain CPUs and batteries on older devices to prevent these random shutdowns.
Apple has also been hit with a second fine of 5 million euros for failing to provide customers with information about their device's battery capacity, average lifespan, or instructions on how to maintain or replace it.
Meanwhile, Samsung is also being fined 5 million euros ($5.7 million) for rolling out the Marshmallow 6.0.1 update (developed for the Galaxy Note 7) to the Note 4.
The firmware was very demanding on the phone, which led to malfunctions in several cases. It also forced users to pay the high repair costs out of pocket, as the Note 4 was two years old, so it was out of warranty.
In response, Samsung said it plans to appeal the decision and expressed disappointment with the panel's decision, while Apple declined to comment.
