Claims that Samsung intentionally slows down older smartphones in order to “induce” customers to buy new models are being investigated in Italy.

The South Korean company is claimed to have used software updates to slow down mobile phones.

Italy’s antitrust body, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), says both companies may have violated four articles of Italy’s Consumers Code.

“Samsung does not provide the software updates to reduce the product performance over the life cycle of the device,” the company told Nikkei.

“We will fully cooperate with Italian Authority for Market and Competition’s investigation in Italy to clarify the facts.”

“We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone.”

Samsung just adds more of their interface and software junk, no need for such simple methods as Apple :-)