US government starts investigating Apple over iPhone slowdown issue

Apple has been hit with many lawsuits after it was discovered the US company throttles down the performance of certain iPhone models to prolong battery life. Not even the fact that Apple promised to lift this performance limit and offer battery replacements for just $29 stopped the negative feedback.

Now it looks like Apple may have another problem to deal with if the recent investigation by US Department of Justice (DoJ) escalates. Bloomberg reports DoJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now looking to find evidence on whether or not Apple has violated securities laws when it throttled down older iPhone models.

Sources familiar with the matter claim the US government has already requested details from Apple, so the investigation hasn't yet escalated and might not be enforced further if DoJ doesn't think it's worth pursuing.

Apple confirmed that its smartphones ranging from the iPhone 6 to iPhone 6s Plus have had their performance throttled down in order to preserve battery life for longer times.

The US company apologized and said it's taking steps to “regain the trust” of its customers by offering a $50 discount on battery purchase and removing the performance limit via an iOS update.