Brazil is taking a stance against Apple for selling their phones without chargers as a means of fighting a “deliberate discriminatory practice” against consumers
A decision, the first of its kind, was made in Brazil last Tuesday—the country has banned the sale of iPhones and fined Apple 12.275 million reais ($2.38 million) for not including chargers in their boxes.
As reported by Reuters, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) considers it to be an insufficient product, arguing that the iPhone was being marketed without its necessary component in a “deliberate discriminatory practice” against consumers.
The decision to stop the sale of the phones comes after Brazil’s consumer protection agency (SENACON) opened a case in December last year, when Apple was sued for the very same reason: selling phones without a charger in what seems to be a tying agreement.
Apple has been fined 12.275 million reais ($2.38 million) for not including chargers in their boxes and is prohibited from selling any phone models that don’t include them
A tying agreement, as explained on Merriam Webster, is an often illegal agreement by one party to sell a product or service on condition that the buyer will also purchase another and different product or service from the same supplier.
“The chargers are tying, selling an incomplete product or lacking essential functionality, refusing to sell a complete product through discrimination against the consumer and transferring responsibility to third parties,” the MJSP stated in a press release. Thus, at present, Apple will no longer be able to sell iPhone models 12 and onwards in the country until a charger is included.
“The chargers are tying, selling an incomplete product or lacking essential functionality,” stated Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP)
So what prompted Apple to exclude chargers in the first place? Back in 2020, the trillion-dollar company stopped including chargers with its phones, which enraged customers; however, Apple argued that the move offered environmental advantages and aimed to reduce its carbon footprint.
F. Cucchietti et al. state that more than a billion new mobile phones are sold yearly, with nearly the same amount of older devices being disposed of, contributing to e-waste. Old chargers, often not compatible with the new phones, are disposed of too, adding to the e-waste problem and increasing the costs for the end user.