Italian competition authorities have fined Apple and Samsung for 'slowing down' phones.

Samsung has been fined €5 million, while Apple has been hit with a €10 million penalty.

According to the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), both companies have released firmware updates for smartphones which "caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced their performance".

It accuses the companies of using the practice to encourage customers to replace their older phones with the latest models.

Officials have highlighted updates introduced since 2016, impacting Samsung's Note 4 devices and Apple's iPhone 6 models.

Their investigation also found that Apple had "not adequately informed consumers" about some essential characteristics of lithium batteries, such as their average lifespan and factors that can lead to deterioration.

The AGCM said the two companies had been hit with the maximum possible fines, because of "the size and the seriousness" of their conduct.

The authority observed: "The two companies have induced consumers [...] to install software updates that are not adequately supported by their devices, without adequately informing them - nor providing them with an effective way of recovering the full functionality of their devices.

"Both companies will also be required to publish an amending declaration on the Italian page of their websites informing about Authority's resolution with a link to its assessment decision."

Last year, Apple apologised for slowing down older iPhones after customers accused the firm of trying to force them into buying newer models.

The US company admitted it had "downclocked" older models' central processing units (CPU) - saying it did so to reduce the strain on dated batteries, and in order to stop the devices from unexpectedly shutting down.