Apple Fined $20m For Selling iPhones Without Chargers
A Brazilian judge fined Apple $20 million on Thursday for selling iPhones without chargers, calling it an “abusive practice” that makes certain customers buy an additional product.
The decision, which can be appealed, came after Brazil’s justice ministry slapped a separate fine of nearly $2.5 million on Apple in September on the same issue and barred the US tech giant from selling its iPhone 12 and 13 models without chargers.
The new fine, 100 million reais, was awarded by a Sao Paulo civil court judge as damages in a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Consumers’ Association.
Apple stopped including outlet chargers with new iPhones in October 2020, saying it wanted to help reduce electronics waste.
But the move “requires consumers to purchase a second product in order for the first to work,” Judge Caramuru Afonso Francisco wrote in his ruling.
He ordered the California company to provide chargers to all consumers in Brazil who bought iPhone models 12 or 13 in the past two years, and start including them with all new purchases.
