Apple fined $19 million in Brazil for missing iPhone charger

New fine for Apple in Brazil due to the removal of the charger from iPhone boxes

Apple continues to lose legal battles in Brazil over its decision to no longer include a charger in its iPhone boxes. The Sao Paulo state court ruled against the tech giant and fined it 100 million Brazilian reais (€19.42 million) following a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Consumers Association. In addition, the court orders Apple to provide a charger to all customers in Brazil who purchased an iPhone 12 or 13 in the past two years and to include the charger with all new purchases. The Cupertino-based company has apparently appealed the decision.

New fine for Apple in Brazil

According to Barron’s, the judge who heard the case called the lack of a charger when buying a smartphone an “offensive practice”that “forces consumers to buy a second product in order for the first one to work.”The apple brand has been in trouble with the Brazilian authorities for some time now. In 2021, São Paulo consumer protection agency Procon-SP fined him approximately $2 million for removing a charger from an iPhone 12 box, saying the company violated the Brazilian Consumer Code.

Last September, the country’s justice minister banned Apple from selling the iPhone without a charger. It also imposed another $2.38 million fine and ordered the iPhone 12 to be unregistered by the national telecommunications agency. The tech giant is also appealing the decision.

due to the removal of the charger in the boxes with the iPhone

Apple stopped selling its charger-equipped iPhones in 2020 with the launch of the iPhone 12. The Cupertino-based company then cited respect for the environment, saying the solution would save 861,000 tons of copper, zinc and tin. Brazil’s justice minister was not convinced by this reasoning, saying that Apple can help the environment in other ways, such as by introducing USB-C into its devices. In Europe, Apple has just two years to do so, as Parliament voted to make USB-C the charging standard in the European Union. Mobile devices such as iPhones sold on the continent must be equipped with a USB-C charging port by the end of 2024.