Aju Business Daily

SEOUL --  There is no undoubtedly clear evidence that U.S. technology company Apple has deliberately slowed down old iPhones to shorten their life, South Korean police said before closing a criminal investigation that began a year ago on complaints from a consumer rights group.

The Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty (CUCS) filed a lawsuit against Apple in January last year, accusing the American company of damaging properties and obstructing business by slowing down devices through operating system updates.

Investigators did not find enough evidence to substantiate the civic group's allegations with no doubt, the police agency in southern Seoul said, citing a report from the National Forensic Service (NFS) which has carried out a complete examination on iPhone samples handed over by CUCS.

The police agency plans to send the case to prosecutors with a recommendation to drop the case.

Apple faced lawsuits in the United States and other parts of the world over accusations that it has deliberately slowed down iPhones to push consumers into buying new phones. In 2017, the company admitted to slowing down some phones with older batteries to prevent unwanted shutdowns.

Some users found their iPhone 6S models turned off unexpectedly, with about 30 percent battery charge remaining, but Apple insisted that the slowdown was designed to protect users from battery problems and extend the service life of iPhones.

Apple updated its iPhones in March 2018 to automatically turn off the slowdown feature. "Devices updating to iOS 11.3 will initially have performance management disabled; it will be re-enabled if the device subsequently experiences an unexpected shutdown," the company wrote in its support website.