Bloomberg reports that both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched an investigation into whether Apple may have violated laws with its practice of throttling iPhones with older batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns.
The report emphasizes that the probe is currently private and in early stages so it’s possible nothing could come as a result of the inquiries.
Bloomberg notes that the probe is specifically over whether or not Apple “violated securities laws concerning its disclosures” of the software updates that introduced throttling.
In addition to the new SEC and DOJ probe, more than two dozen class action lawsuits have been filed against Apple over the episode both in the US and around the world.
The controversy gained steam last month when Apple acknowledged that it started throttling iPhone performance on specific models with older batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns during peak performance.
The admission followed a discovery that replacing batteries on older iPhones could restore performance on slower models. Geekbench scores confirmed the discovery which prompted a more comprehensive response.
Apple ultimately decided to drop the price of replacement batteries from $79 to $29 through 2018 and promised a future iOS update that gives customers battery health data.
Apple will also add an option to disable performance throttling on affected iPhones at the risk of facing unexpected shutdowns through a future iOS 11.3 release.
