The government of Brazil has announced that it will prohibit the sale of iPhones that do not come with a power adaptor.
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security stated on Tuesday that it had fined Apple 12.275 million reais, equivalent to £2.04 million.
According to Senacon, a Brazilian consumer regulator, Apple’s decision to provide a “incomplete product” to customers by not including power adapters with its newest iPhone models constitutes unfair treatment of customers.
Apple has stated that they will fight the prohibition.
The business said in a statement that it would work with Brazilian authorities to “resolve their concerns,” but it added that it has already won multiple court judgments in Brazil on the matter. The statement was given to Reuters.
Apple stated that they are confident that their customers are aware of the different choices that are available to them for connecting and charging their devices.
It was announced that there will be a fine as well as a prohibition on sales of iPhones that did not include a USB power adaptor one day before Apple demonstrated its new iPhone 14, 14 Pro, and Apple Watch Ultra.
The consumer protection agency in Sao Paulo issued Apple a fine of two million Brazilian reals (about two million dollars) in 2018, claiming that the sale of the iPhone 12 and every model released after it violates consumer law because they do not come with chargers.
Taking the plug out of it
When Apple introduced the iPhone 12 in 2020, the company discontinued putting power adapters and headphones in the packaging of the device.
It was stated that the change, which came after Apple had previously removed power adapters from new Apple Watch boxes, would assist in lowering Apple’s carbon footprint by making the company’s packaging more compact.
During the keynote presentation for Apple’s 2020 September event, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and social programs stated that “sometimes it’s not what we make, but what we don’t make that counts.”
She also mentioned that there were already over two billion official Apple power adapters in circulation throughout the world.
Senacon, which initiated legal action against the change in 2017, stated that Apple’s justifications for eliminating USB power adapters from iPhone boxes on the basis of sustainability were “not enough.”
It was stated that there was no evidence to suggest that removing fees will have any positive effects on the environment.
According to the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, Senacon stated that the company could have considered alternatives to reducing its impact on the environment that would not place the burden on consumers. One example of such an alternative would be adopting USB-C cables and chargers in order to reduce e-waste.
At the beginning of this year, the European Union reached a temporary agreement on plans to implement a single USB-C charging cord for portable electronic devices.
‘Incomplete product’
Senacon also pointed to Apple’s practise of selling new iPhones without the accompanying power adapters as an example of the company’s attempt to coerce customers into buying a second product after they have already purchased a new iPhone.
It stated that a power adapter should be included in the device since it is necessary to run the phone and that the phone would be a “incomplete product” if it did not include one.
The organization stated that the change has transferred responsibility to third-party providers as well as individual customers because the price of iPhones that do not come with power adapters has not decreased.
