MANILA, Philippines – Apple’s iPhone slowdown scandal has turned into a matter of federal interest as US agencies begin to conduct probes, Bloomberg reported.

The US Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have begun questioning the iPhone maker, specifically on whether the company committed violations over certain disclosures to its investors. 

The two agencies are investigating whether investors were properly informed and not misled about the performance of older phones.

An early 2017 iOS update, iOS 10.2.1, had throttled the performance of the iPhone 7 and older models when the battery would reach a certain level of degradation. Apple failed to disclose this piece of information when the update was initially launched, and only announced it in December 2017.

A future update will give users the option to turn off the battery throttling feature, although Apple warned that it might lead to more sudden reboots.

Older Apple batteries, like any other lithium ion batteries in other smartphones, aren’t always able to keep up with a phone’s demands, hence the reboots. Apple said its update was meant to circumvent the reboots. 

Apple told Bloomberg that it has indeed “received questions from some government agencies,” and that it is “responding to them.”

Mirroring Apple’s earlier statements, the company spokeswoman added that they would never do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product in order to get people to upgrade to newer ones. – Rappler.com