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The Italian antitrust authority has announced a fine of 5M euro and 10M euro [www.ansa.it] against Samsung and Apple respectively, because they forced upon the users of their mobile devices a number of system updates that significantly impaired the performance and the stability of the smartphones, pushing the owners to consider replacement or repair outside warranty coverage of the misbehaving items.

Apparently the two companies failed to underline that the security mentioned in the upgrades was relative to their own cash flow, by creating demand for new models.

It is a first for tech firms to be explicitly fined for the notorious practice called "planned obsolescence".

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