The Brazilian Ministry of Justice has banned the sale of iPhones without chargers in the box. Apple will now reportedly appeal the case. In a press release issued Tuesday of this week, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice (MJSP) refers to a “suspension” of the sale of iPhones. Apple was also fined the equivalent of about 2.3 million by the MJSP. This is in addition to a fine of 1.9 million from 2021 when Apple shipped the first smartphones without a charging pad.
When Apple announced in 2020 that it would no longer ship charging blocks in the packaging of its new smartphones, then the iPhone 12, the company reportedly argued that it had removed the adapter for environmental reasons. In a 2021 report, Apple claimed that eliminating the adapter saved 861,000 tons of copper, zinc and tin. The same report indicates that there will also be a positive impact on shipping options, as boxes will be smaller with the iPhone 12, allowing shipping pallets to hold up to 70 percent more boxes. In this way, they can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
In April of this year, Apple was ordered to pay a customer $1,075 for failing to put a charging pad in the box containing the iPhone 12. Even then, Apple argued that this was done to protect the environment and that removing the charging pad would be equivalent to removing 450,000 cars per year. The Brazilian court, on the other hand, was of the opinion that this was not a sufficient reason because the sales strategy violated Brazilian legislation.
The Brazilian authorities looked into the case and concluded that not providing a charging block when purchasing a smartphone is a discriminatory practice against consumers. According to Article 39 of the Consumer Protection Code (CDC), sales that require the purchase of other additional products are a prohibited practice in Brazil, so it is not allowed to sell mobile phones and chargers separately. The authorities also believe that Apple could have taken other measures to make a positive contribution to environmental protection, including supporting USB-C chargers on its smartphones.
Well, this is just another bad trend started by Apple, who also introduced customer-unfriendly trends like irreplaceable batteries and glass backs, only to be followed by other smartphone manufacturers, including its biggest competitor Samsung. Personally, I do not mind so much that there are no charging blocks included in the package. First of all, I do not use an iPhone and secondly, I have a lot of charging blocks with universal Type-C cables lying around at home and in the office.
