Apple is facing a French criminal probe after allegations from consumer groups that it’s slowing down old iPhones on purpose. Paris prosecutors confirmed the probe today, as first spotted by Bloomberg.

Apple apologized to customers on December 28th for intentionally slowing down the processors used in the iPhone 6, 7, and SE through iOS updates to address aging lithium-ion batteries. The change was meant to reduce random shutdowns by throttling the phone’s CPU, but that also leads to slower performance. As an apologetic gesture, the tech giant is offering $29 battery replacements, instead of the usual $79 replacement fee.

The French probe, which reportedly began last Friday, comes after a consumer group, Halte à l’Obsolescence Programmée…

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