A South Korean civil group initiated a criminal proceeding against Apple Headquarters and Apple Korea for purposely lowering performance of iPhones. Defendants are CEO Tim Cook of Apple and CEO Daniel Dicicco of Apple Korea. This will be Apple’s second time of being charged with a crime due to iPhone Gate followed by France.
If prosecutors’ investigations find out that this act by Apple is indeed a crime, it is likely that CEO Tim Cook of Apple and CEO Daniel Dicicco of Apple Korea will not avoid imprisonment or fine.
Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty (CUCS) charged Tim Cook and Daniel Dicicco with a crime at Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on the 18th. Previously, it initiated first damage class action on the 11th with 112 iPhone consumers as plaintiffs.
CUCS claimed that this act by Apple corresponds to obstruction of business by computers (Article 314 of the Criminal Code), fraud (Article 347 of the Criminal Code), and property damage (Article 366 of the Criminal Code).
CUCS judged that entering unlawful commands into iPhones and causing troubles with information processing and disrupting wire transfers, purchasing of stocks, word processing, and information search correspond do obstruction of business.
It also considered consumers spending more money by having to replace batteries or buying new Smartphones due to lowered performance of their iPhones as fraud and it is certain that causing changes in iPhones’ conditions in contrast to consumers’ profits is property damage.

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<Representatives from Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty are explaining details on why they are accusing Apple and CEO Tim Cook at Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on the 18th. Starting from the left: Na Tae-kyoon, Lawyer Jung Joon-ho, Team Leader Park Soon-jang. Staff Reporter Yoon, Sunghyeok | shyoon@etnews.com>

If what CUCS is claiming comes out to be true, defendants can be imprisoned between 3 to 10 years or receive fines less than $18,600 (20 million KRW).
“We’ve decided that it is right to blame civil and criminal responsibilities on Apple in order to protect property and rights of consumers from illegal acts by Apple.” said CUCS. “We hope that prosecutors prepare opportunities for consumers to take back iPhone users’ rights that were violated.”
Previously, a consumer group in France charged Apple with a crime for violating Hamon Law, which prevents manufacturers from lowering performance of their devices on purpose after a certain period in order to shorten time period of products. If a business breaks this law, it is possible for it to be given a fine worth up to 5% of its annual sales or receive up to two years of imprisonment of its management.
“I did not realize that so many people are interested on our software updates.” said CEO Tim Cook of Apple during an interview with ABC News on the 17th (U.S. time). “We are planning to introduce an iOS developer beta version that includes a function that allows users to whether they want to limit performance of their iPhones or not in early next month.” He also added that Apple will add an option that allows users to remove limitations of performance of their iPhones.
Staff Reporter Choi, Jaepil | jpchoi@etnews.com