Apple will update the iPhone 12 in France, in order to comply with European standards on the level of wave emission and obtain the lifting of the withdrawal of its marketing in France, the company learned this Friday, September 15. AFP with the Californian giant and the French Minister for Digital Affairs.
“After discussions and as requested (Tuesday) by the ANFR (the frequency agency), the manufacturer Apple assured me that it would implement an update on the iPhone 12 in the coming days,” he said. said Jean-Noël Barrot in a statement sent to AFP.
“We will release a software update for French users to reflect the protocol used by French regulatory authorities,” an Apple spokesperson said in a separate statement. “We look forward to the iPhone 12 continuing to be available in France,” he added.
A temporary withdrawal from the French market
Marketed since the end of 2020, the iPhone 12 was at the end of its career when the ANFR declared a temporary withdrawal from the French market on Tuesday, due to too high a level of wave emission.
Concretely, the iPhone 12 exceeds by 1.74 watts per kilogram (w/kg) the regulatory limit value corresponding to the energy that can be absorbed by the human body when the phone is held in the hand (called SAR members).
In many similar cases, manufacturers update their device before reaching retirement. This was not the case for Apple, faced with this procedure for the first time.
Apple had contested the agency’s conclusions
The manufacturer has two weeks to propose corrective measures. “ANFR is preparing to quickly test this update which would ultimately make the model compliant,” Jean-Noël Barrot declared on Friday. Failing this, the minister declared that he was ready to request the recall of all devices of this model.
Apple contested the agency’s conclusions on Tuesday, ensuring that the iPhone 12 complied with standards defined around the world. He now points the finger at “the specific testing protocol used by French regulators” and denies “any security problem”.
In fact, exceeding the measure is probably harmless. Moreover, “the non-compliance detected did not justify an immediate recall”, assures the ANFR.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “there is currently no evidence that exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic fields is dangerous to human health.”