Brazil’s Justice Ministry has ordered Apple to stop selling iPhones without a power adapter in the box in the country. Additionally, it fined the company R$ 12.275 million (US$2.35 million).
The sales ban extends to all iPhones available in the country, including iPhone 12 and newer models.
Apple’s move to not bundle a charger with the iPhone is discriminatory
In its decision, the Justice Ministry says Apple is not providing consumers the complete experience by not bundling a charger in the box. Apple claimed that it is reducing carbon emissions by doing so. The regulatory body, however, argued that this is a “deliberate discriminatory practice against consumers.”
The Justice Ministry’s decision arrived just a day before Apple’s Far Out iPhone 14 event.
Apple confirmed that it would appeal the decision. It will also work closely with Senacon — Brazil’s consumer protection agency — to resolve all issues. The company issued the following statement to Bloomberg:
“Power adapters represented our largest use of zinc and plastic and eliminating them from the box helped cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions — equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road per year.
We’ve already won a number of court decisions in Brazil on this topic and are confident our customers are aware of the various options to charge and connect their devices.”
Apple has frequently run into issues with Brazilian’s regulatory authority
This is not the first time Apple has faced issues with Brazilian authorities. In 2021, Procon-SP — the country’s consumer protection regulator — slapped a fine of R$ 10.5 million (US$2 million) for selling the iPhone 12 without a charger. Before that, Apple landed in hot water with the regulator for throttling the performance of older iPhones.
Similar to the EU, Brazil has also proposed mandating USB-C as the standard port on all smartphones for greater consumer convenience.
Source: Reuters
