Apple, Samsung fined $26 million for slowing down phones

Italy's competition authority handed down fines to Apple and Samsung. Photo / Getty Images

Italy's competition authority has fined Apple and Samsung €15 million ($26.2m) after claims the companies deliberately slow down their phones to force users to upgrade.

The tech firms received the maximum fine possible in the first ruling of its kind against smartphone manufacturers in Europe following complex investigations by the country's antitrust watchdog.

A similar probe was launched in France earlier this year.

The investigations followed accusations worldwide that both companies encourage system updates that slow older phones and make them obsolete.

Apple and Samsung were fined €10m and €5m apiece following investigations that determined they held "unfair commercial practices".

The antitrust authority AGCM said that operating system updates "caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced their performance, in this way speeding up their replacement with more recent products".

Both companies will be required to publish an "amending declaration" on the Italian pages of their websites, linking back to the ruling.

Samsung said it plans to appeal the decision and expressed disappointment at the result.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.