FILE PHOTO: An iPhone X is displayed on a table at an Apple store in New York, U.S., November 3, 2017. (REUTERS)

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel's consumer protection authority said Tuesday that it opened an investigation against Apple Israel over the deliberate slowing down of older iPhone models.

A statement released by the Israeli Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority said that Apple Israel's CEO Rony Friedman was questioned Tuesday by the agency's investigators over suspicion that the digital giant used software updates to slow down the devices.

The authority said it had launched the probe following posts by Israeli consumers complaining about the slowdown on social networks.

Apple has admitted that the slowdown was a built-in feature in mobile phones with old batteries to prevent the devices from shutting down.

The company faces multiple lawsuits over this feature.

In Israel, a 500-million-shekel (about 143 million U.S. dollars) class-action lawsuit against Apple was filed on December 25, 2017, accusing Apple of having "a clear interest in hiding the information from users because it would prefer they replace old iPhones with new ones as soon as possible."