A court in Sao Paulo, Brazil has found the tech giant Apple guilty of “social damages” and has issued a $19 million fine(100 million reais).
Months ago, the Brazilian association of borrowers, consumers, and taxpayers (AMBCC) filed a lawsuit against the tech giant Apple for not including complete charger sets with their new phone models. Apple has also argued that the minimal used production of chargers is necessary in order to cut down their carbon footprint and emissions. According to them, most customers already own chargers from previous purchases and they continue to seek chargers as separate items.
Also in addition to the fine, the court also expects Apple to resume the sale of their phones with complete chargers and to issue said chargers to all Brazilians who purchased iPhones since October 13, 2020. In 2020, Apple put a stop to the normal practice of including full chargers just as they released the iPhone 12. In many countries, they instead shipped phones accompanied with USB-C to lightning cables, as opposed to the usual practice of adding earpods and, or power adapters.
This is not the first time the tech company has been fined in Brazil regarding this same issue. Earlier this year, they were also ordered to stop the sale of iPhones in the country without chargers and fined 2.34 million dollars. The justice ministry of the country cited that they were “selling an incomplete product.
Apple has not complied with the earlier ruling or this new one as they have instead filed an appeal for the first and plan to appeal the recent ruling in Sao Paulo.
