The “serialization” practices of the American giant Apple are now the subject of an official investigation for deceptive marketing practices and planned obsolescence. This is what the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday, after a complaint filed by the French association Halte à l’obsolescence programmed (HOP). Opened last December, the investigations into this complaint denouncing faulty repairability of apple devices were entrusted to the national investigation service of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), according to the prosecution, which confirmed an announcement from the association.
In a press release, the latter said it hoped that this investigation would “sanction and demonstrate the criminal nature” of Apple’s practices. The American group’s “serialization” practices consist of “associating the serial numbers of spare parts with that of a smartphone, in particular via microchips, giving the manufacturer the possibility of restricting repairs for non-approved repairers or to degrade a smartphone repaired with “generic parts” remotely,” according to HOP.
Already an investigation for voluntary aging of old iPhones
“On the occasion of the visit to Paris of Tim Cook, the general manager of Apple, in a month, for the VivaTech event, HOP calls on the smartphone manufacturer to guarantee the right to the repairability of its devices in a logic sincere circular economy”, writes the association. Apple France could not immediately be reached by AFP for comment.
In February 2020, Apple had agreed to pay a fine of 25 million euros in France as part of a criminal transaction, to end prosecution for deceptive commercial practices.
An investigation was opened in 2018, after a previous complaint from HOP, which then denounced facts of premature and voluntary aging of old iPhones, the giant having admitted that it was voluntarily restricting the performance of old models after a certain time, but in the goal, according to him, “to prolong their lifespan”.