The Italian anti-trust authority
on Thursday opened two separate probes into companies in the
Samsung and Apple groups operating in Italy, for suspected
anticompetitive practices.
The authority said the decisions had been taken after
complaints from consumers and a "formal pre-investigative
phase".
The companies are accused of "a general commercial policy
aimed at exploiting the lack of certain components to reduce the
performance times of their products and induce consumers to buy
new versions".
The firms also allegedly offered clients "software updates of
their cellphones without highlighting the possible consequences
of the update and without supplying enough information to
maintain an adequate level of performance of the devices,
promoted and acquired for their specific and elevated
technological characteristics".
This conduct, the anti-trust authority said, "could prove to
be in breach of articles 20, 21, 22 and 24 of the Consumers
Code.
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