Italy watchdog fines Apple and Samsung over software updates By Pascale Davies with Reuters • Updated: 24/10/2018 Tech giants Apple and Samsung are being fined by Italy's anti-trust watchdog following accusations software updates slowed down older smartphones, which encouraged people to purchase new phones. Apple was handed a fine of €10 million, while Samsung will have to pay €5 million. The US company was hit with the higher fine for failing to give customers clear information about how to maintain or replace its lithium batteries. The anti-trust body said in a statement that some Apple and Samsung firmware updates “had caused serious dysfunctions and reduced performance significantly, thereby accelerating the process of replacing them”. It added, the two firms had not provided clients adequate information about the impact of the new software “or any means of restoring the original functionality of the products”. What did Apple do? The statement read: "It has insistently proposed, from September 2016, to the owners of various models of iPhone 6 (6 / 6Plus and 6s / 6sPlus respectively placed on the market in the autumn of 2014 and 2015), to install the new operating system iOS 10 developed for the new iPhone7, without informing the greater energy demands of the new operating system and the possible inconveniences — such as sudden shutdowns —