Apple to pay $113 million over deliberately slowing down iPhones

苹果要为故意让iPhone速度变慢支付1.13亿美元

译锐翻译   2020-11-20   9:40 a.m. 

Apple has agreed to pay millions of dollars to 34 states over its controversial previous practice of deliberately slowing down older iPhones to extend their battery life.

针对此前备受争议的故意让老款iPhone运行速度下降并从而延迟电池寿命的做法，苹果同意向34个州支付数百万美元。

The company will pay $113 million to settle an investigation by states including California and Arizona over how Apple wasn't transparent about its iPhone battery problems that led to unexpected device shutdowns. Instead of disclosing the issue to consumers or replacing the batteries, it pushed a software update in December 2016 that impacted the performance of older iPhone models.

公司将支付1.13亿美元解决加州和亚利桑那州的调查。调查内容为苹果未公开导致手机突然关机的电池问题。苹果公司并没有将该情况告知消费者或更换电池，相反，苹果于2016年12月强行推出软件升级并导致升级后的老款手机速度变慢。

News of the practice upset Apple (AAPL) consumers, igniting what some called "batterygate." Many believed it was an effort to encourage users to buy new iPhones.

有关苹果做法的报道惹怒了消费者，并导致一些人称该事件为“电池门”事件。许多消费者认为，苹果此举是为了让消费者购买新的苹果手机。

"Big Tech companies must stop manipulating consumers and tell them the whole truth about their practices and products," said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who helped lead the investigation, in a press release on Thursday. "I'm committed to holding these goliath technology companies accountable when they conceal important information from users."

亚利桑那州大法官Mark Brnovich协助开展调查，其在周四的新闻发布会上表示：“科技巨头必须停止操纵消费者并且要向消费者披露有关他们的做法和产品的真实情况。我要做的是让这些对用户隐瞒重要信息的科技巨头企业承担后果。”

At the time, the company issued a rare apology, temporarily dropped the price of replacement batteries from $79 to $29, and added a feature to allow iPhone users to monitor battery health.

在同一时间，苹果公司罕见道歉并把替换电池的价格从79美元临时下调到29美元并新增了一个可以让手机用户监控电池健康状态的功能。"We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize," the company said in a 2017 statement. "First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades."

苹果在2017年的声明中表示：“我们知道，你们当中的一些人会认为苹果让你们失望了。我们对此表示歉意。最重要的是，我们从来没有-并且永远也不会-故意缩短任何苹果产品的寿命，或者通过破坏消费者的体验来驱使消费者进行升级。”

Despite the mea culpa, it faced legal ramifications. In March, Apple agreed to pay up to half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of slowing down iPhones to compel users to buy new ones.

尽管苹果公司发出了道歉声明，但是它还是要面对法律后果。在3月，苹果同意支付5亿美元来解决指控其减慢手机速度并驱使消费者去购买新产品的集体诉讼。

class action: 集体诉讼

In addition to paying states millions of dollars, Apple agreed to provide updates about iPhone battery health, performance and power management on its website or installation notes.

除了向各州支付数百万美元外，苹果还同意在其网站或安装提示上提供有关电池健康状况、性能以及电量管理方面的更新信息。

来源：CNN   编辑：Susan