Apple Inc. is facing another multistate probe into its practice of throttling older iPhones, this time led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

The probe, which could also involve Texas, began in October 2018 and is trying to determine if Apple’s deliberate slowing down of older iPhones was in violation of deceptive trade practice laws, Reuters reported today.

Reuters said last week that the Texas AG was also investigating claims that Apple had deceived customers, though it gave no other details. Now it says that Arizona’s probe is likely linked to the Texas report, with both states investigating Apple’s 2017 iPhone slowdown practices.

The probe relates to a “performance management system” Apple introduced in its iOS 10.2.1 update that was released in early 2017. That system was designed to eliminate unexpected shutdowns on Apple devices by throttling the performance of iPhones that have chemically aged batteries.

But Apple never disclosed how the power management system worked, and customers were angered that the performance of their devices was being downgraded without their knowledge. There were even claims that Apple was secretly slowing down older iPhones in an effort to persuade customers to upgrade to a newer model.

Apple countered by saying the power management system was simply designed to ensure that its iPhones could squeeze more life out of their batteries.

Apple later apologized for the practice and launched a battery replacement program for older iPhones. That gave customers the option to pay $29 for a new battery to ensure their devices’ performance would not be throttled.

The company also agreed in March to pay up to $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the issue.

The performance management system in iOS is now disabled by default and only switches on if an iPhone experiences an unexpected shutdown. And users still have the option to disable it again afterwards. Apple now also provides more detailed information on battery health so customers can decide for themselves when a replacement is needed.

It remains to be seen if the state AGs can win their lawsuit against Apple, but in any case we may get to see more transparency and humbleness from the company that would at least benefit its user base, Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE.

“It is unfortunate when tech companies don’t do the right thing,” he continued. “Batteries degrade, we all know that, so it’s really a vendor’s ethical duty to be transparent on the impact of this. They should offer users replacement batteries and more choice, but unfortunately these are not key characteristics of Apple’s “walled garden” approach to its products.”

Photo: Niels Epting/Flickr