Though Apple said it’s preparing to appeal this decision, the company may most likely lose this battle as in the past. Earlier, Apple’s environmental reasons for not including a power adapter with iPhones were quashed by the Brazilian ministry, and they were forced to follow their rules.
Penalizing Apple in Brazil
Since 2020, Apple has started selling iPhones without power adapters (charging bricks) – citing environmental reasons! The company has long been advocating that it could save hundreds of thousands of tons of copper, zinc, and other materials by not shipping charges with all the iPhones. And this move has been heavily criticized – by everyone! Brazil’s government was one of them, which fined apple multiple times in the past and even banned the company’s smartphones in the country that don’t come with chargers included. Now again, a São Paulo state court has ruled against Apple in a case filed by the Brazilian Consumers’ Association and fined the company 100 million real ($19 million). Further, the court ruled that Apple should supply all iPhone 12 and 13 customers in Brazil with a charger and include them in all the new purchases coming up. As usual, Apple said it’d appeal the decision – but it is most likely to be dismissed. The European Parliament earlier this year voted that all smartphones in the union should have a standardized charging port of USB-C – thus forcing Apple to tune its iPhones accordingly. Brazil’s government has been advocating the same, too, saying that Apple could contribute to the environment by inducing USB-C ports in all its iPhones. The judge in charge of the case of this latest case has called Apple’s practice of not including chargers in phone purchases an “abusive practice” that “requires consumers to purchase a second product in order for the first to work.”
