On Tuesday, France's ANFR, the country's radiation watchdog, notified Apple that the iPhone 12 was being banned due to tests showing that the phone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) - a measure of the rate of radiofrequency energy absorbed by the body from a piece of equipment - was higher than legally allowed. Yet France's junior minister for the digital economy, Jean-Noel Barrot, said a software update would be sufficient to fix the radiation issues linked to the phone which the U.S. company has been selling since 2020.

Although Apple vehemently disputed the findings and provided the ANFR with multiple Apple and independent third-party lab results proving its compliance with all applicable SAR regulations and standards in the world."

Knowing that the ANFR wouldn't back down and other countries were contemplating similar bans such as Italy, Apple today released a statement that it would issue a software update for iPhone 12 users in France to potentially end a row with French regulators that ordered the suspension of the phone's sale due to breaches of radiation exposure limits.

Apple: "We will issue a software update for users in France to accommodate the protocol used by French regulators. We look forward to iPhone 12 continuing to be available in France. This is related to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern."

"The ANFR (French regulator) is preparing to quickly test this update," French Digital Affairs Minister Jean Noel Barrot's ministry said in a statement, adding this should bring the model into compliance with European standards and allow France to lift the sale suspension. For more on this, click here.