The Justice Ministry in Brazil today ordered Apple to stop selling iPhones without a charger in the box, reports Reuters. Brazilian officials say that Apple is giving customers an incomplete product when the power adapter is not included with the purchase, a move the government claims is a "deliberate discriminatory practice against consumers."
Apple has been fined 12.275 million reais (~$2.34 million) for selling iPhones without chargers, and Brazilian officials are forcing the company to cease offering any iPhone that does not come with a power adapter, including the iPhone 12 and newer.
The Brazilian state of São Paulo previously fined Apple close to $2 million for not providing a charger with modern iPhones, which the São Paulo consumer protection agency said was a violation of Consumer Law Code. Apple also lost a 2022 lawsuit in the country after a customer who did not receive a charger sued.
Apple has told Brazilian officials that not including a power adapter with the iPhone offers environmental benefits and cuts down on waste, but Brazil has thus far rejected this argument.
Apple stopped providing chargers with iPhones starting with the 2020 launch of the iPhone 12 lineup. In most countries, Apple no longer ships iPhones with EarPods or a power adapter, including just a USB-C to Lightning charging cable. Apple says that most customers already have power adapters on hand to charge with, and has told customers that removing these accessories is part of its effort to "reach [its] environmental goals."
The Justice Ministry's order comes one day ahead of Apple's iPhone 14 announcement, which will see the debut of updated iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models.
Update 1:40 p.m.: In a statement to Bloomberg, Apple says it will appeal the ruling:
"At Apple, we consider our impact on people and the planet in everything we do," the company said in an emailed statement. "Power adapters represented our largest use of zinc and plastic and eliminating them from the box helped cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions -- equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road per year." [...]
"We've already won a number of court decisions in Brazil on this topic and are confident our customers are aware of the various options to charge and connect their devices," the Cupertino, California-based company said.
Top Rated Comments
Think of going to Mcdonalds and ordering a ? Big mac. But you don't get any buns and cheese. You have to ask for the buns and cheese to be included for some extra $.
I'm not even quite sure why they did it. The charger can't have been expensive to manufacture and there isn't exactly a huge opportunity cost to it either (not everyone is going to buy the official Apple branded charger). It just doesn't make much sense to me.