Apple Must Compensate Brazilian Customer Over $1,000 for Selling iPhone Without a Charger, Judge Rules

[bingeciren]

Well, Apple says people already have plenty of chargers already. That may be true, people may have plenty of USB-A 5V chargers but then again, why what comes out of the box with the phone is a UCB-C -> Lightning cable?

Apple should either not include a cable altogether, or if they are going to include a cable, then it should be a USB-A -> Lightning cable.

Somehow their logic eludes me.

 

[SigEp265]

Just ridiculous. I cannot fathom how anyone can reasonably make the argument that every device manufacturer has to include a charger in the box for every device they sell forever.

Back when Macbook's magsafe chargers were like $120983120 -- I would be pretty pissed if the one I got for college didn't come with a charger.

 

[sw1tcher]

$1,075

or what Apple makes in under 0.5 second

Infographic: Apple's 3,000-Dollar-per-Second-Paycheck

This chart shows the net income generated per second by selected tech companies.

www.statista.com

 

[deeddawg]

In doing away with the audio jack there was way to have privacy for calls or music. Whoops! Apple makes wireless ear pods for $100s more than the $10 ear buds they used to include with their audio stuff.

Blatantly false.

Earlier models came with a lightning to 1/8" adapter. Later models came with headphones with a lightning plug.

Plenty of cheap aftermarket lightning corded wired headphones available today, as well as plenty of inexpensive bluetooth headphones which always worked, and you can even still buy the lighting to 1/8" adapter if you need one.

Another point is Apple stores are not in every city or out in the country side. Remember they ship the phone anywhere and in a remote area that could create an issue

Haven't been out in the sticks lately have you.

Walk into any rural gas station or convenience store and there's plenty of cheap chargers, cords, and headphones available.

There's also this little company called Amazon you might have heard of?

 

[SigEp265]

You can just buy the charger. If the charger were included, Apple would simply make the iPhone a bit more expensive. They have a certain margin they want to hit and they're going to do that with or without the charger in the box.

It's a fallacy to think you wouldn't pay extra for the charger if it were included in the box.

You would pay extra for the charger no matter what, so you can just as well buy it separately.

People just need to include the charger price in the total price for buying an iPhone if they need it. It's as simple as that.

Removing the brick didn't change the price of any iPhone LOL

 

[ThailandToo]

Just ridiculous. I cannot fathom how anyone can reasonably make the argument that every device manufacturer has to include a charger in the box for every device they sell forever.

Why do you care? Apple is saving money as Tim Cook cares about nothing other than the stock price.

He should only make iPhones and Apple products in the free world. Until he starts doing the right things, I have no use for defending Apple.

 

[contacos]

With that logic, Apple shouldn’t include a cable either because it leads to additional waste since the cable they include now, does not even work with those chargers supposedly everyone already has at home!

 

[sw1tcher]

Crazy. I can't begin to imagine how hard it must be to decipher regulations in every country where Apple sells their products, to ensure they don't get cross-ways with some obscure requirement.

You suggesting that Apple's $1 billion+ per year legal department budget isn't enough to decipher regulations in every country where they sell their products? ?

Apple’s former top lawyer: $1 billion budget enabled high-risk strategies

Apple has been riding the fine line of legal conduct, profiting handsomely from coming close to the edge, while occasionally taking a hit for crossing it.

venturebeat.com

 

[BP321]

It made me so happy. You are paying more than $1000 and they don’t provide the charger. Least, they can give your store credit for the charger adapter if they truly care about environment, not profit. Not including charging accessories is the stupidest thing that many other companies are following. Disgusting!

 

[Mousse]

cost of doing biz in Brazil, no defense for Apple in this case

Trudat. The fanbois defending Apple for being thinking they're above the law.? The law is the law. You accept that obeying the national law as part of doing business in a country. As Aretha Franklin would say,

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Find out what it means to me.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Take care. TCB.

 

[ratspg]

With that logic, Apple shouldn’t include a cable either because it leads to additional waste since the cable they include now, does not even work with those chargers supposedly everyone already has at home!

They shouldn’t include the box anymore or plastic either. Since it’s been shrinking and it’s also waste. Just hand out the phones, no box no cable no charger. ?? The logic here is so weird lately! Lol.

 

[Kabeyun]

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[mannyvel]

The judge is basically saying "The law states that you must include your overpriced charger and charge more money and not allow people to save money by buying a cheaper charger that works just as well."

I suppose that means that the washer/dryer hookup cables/ducts are included in Brazil, since in the US those are unbundled items.

This is sort of consumer law gone wrong. It obviously favors local manufacturers, who can bundle items and charge more for them.

 

[rhinckley]

$1075???? Am I understanding this correctly? Brazilians are pretty much getting their entire iPhone purchase refunded over the charger?

No, Brazil has duty taxes that are like 50% of the phone or more. Apple products usually cost more than double the price they do in the US in Brazil.

But that’s besides the point haha

 

[nastysailboat]

someone’s mad about having the most expensive iPhone.

 

[BP321]

You can just buy the charger. If the charger were included, Apple would simply make the iPhone a bit more expensive. They have a certain margin they want to hit and they're going to do that with or without the charger in the box.

It's a fallacy to think you wouldn't pay extra for the charger if it were included in the box.

You would pay extra for the charger no matter what, so you can just as well buy it separately.

People just need to include the charger price in the total price for buying an iPhone if they need it. It's as simple as that.

With higher tag price, people might buy some other phone. How much an iPhone cost? They say $1000 but in reality it cost $1025 getting a separate adapter. Well, I might not have considered buying an iPhone for $1025 while I might buy it for $1000. So, Apple don’t have power to increase their price to any level - it needs to stay competitive

 

[sw1tcher]

$1075???? Am I understanding this correctly? Brazilians are pretty much getting their entire iPhone purchase refunded over the charger?

Didn't read article or look into it, but could the $1,075 be a mix of compensation for missing charger AND punitive damage to discourage behavior? Not that a measly $1,075 is discouraging to Apple when they're willing to pay millions for a Dutch fine

 

[nastysailboat]

No, Brazil has duty taxes that are like 50% of the phone or more. Apple products usually cost more than double the price they do in the US in Brazil.

But that’s besides the point haha

Lol the $1000 is the cost of the charger there

 

[panjandrum]

Dang! Does this mean that I can sue an auto manufacturer for not supplying me with gas for the life of my car? After all, gas is an essential part of the car experience.

See? This is why we need real critical-thinking training in education, as early as possible. Well, no, this isn't really why; things like 'still having Democracies in the world for our kids to grow up in' are far more important reasons:

Your argument is a simple basic fallacy, it reads: "Gasoline is to a Car as a Charger is to an iPhone." The problem is that Gasoline is a consumable, like Electricity. In other words this would be more accurate; "Gasoline is to a Car as Electricity is to an iPhone" (a subtle but key difference.) To stick with your car analogy; this is more like Apple not including the alternator; a necessary component for the functioning of the device as it charges your car's battery. Or if you have to stick specifically with the Gas analogy, it's like Ford (for example) selling you a car with a gas-tank, but you have to pay extra for the fuel filler neck assembly, because it's assumed you'll already have fuel filler neck assembly for a Ford. I mean, how could you not? It's silly to include one!

Let's not pretend that this is anything other than Apple being able to make a tiny bit more on each iPhone while lying that it is for some noble purpose.

 

[velocityg4]

I‘m not with Apple regarding the charger issue, but how can the damage done to the consumer be more than the price of a charger?

The courts position is probably something like the phone is useless without the charger. Therefore the phone purchase should be fully refunded. Rather than putting the onus on the consumer to go out and buy a charger to make the phone work.

I'm not saying it isn't an idiotic judgement. I'm just trying to come up with some reason why a court would see this as a reasonable judgement.

 

[contacos]

They shouldn’t include the box anymore or plastic either. Since it’s been shrinking and it’s also waste. Just hand out the phones, no box no cable no charger. ?? The logic here is so weird lately! Lol.

Unrelated to the charging process of a phone and as far as I know, the iPhone does indeed no longer come wrapped in plastic.

It is no coincidence Apple started selling MagSafe accessories at the same time as they removed the charger

 

[paulovsouza]

It's not about defending Apple. I do think they have way too much market power and are abusing it, for example.

I'm just actually convinced that including the charger in the box doesn't make sense. Most people who are in the Apple ecosystem have a bunch of those chargers already. I simply don't need another one the next time I buy a new iPhone unless they change the charger concept. But as long as the charger stays the same, I'm covered with chargers for any new iPhone, pair of AirPods, or whatever I'll buy in the future. I have enough of them, so why give me another one? It's just unnecessary.

And I'm not naive enough to believe Apple wouldn't charge more if they did include the charger.

I’m assuming you’re American? iPhone in Brazil is usually not a yearly upgrade. Prices of iPhone and accessories are much more inflated because of import tax and other fees, and that includes the charger.

You have to put yourself in these people’s shoes. Not everyone all over the world owns devices from all of Apples ecosystem and have a plethora of cables and power bricks.

 

[BP321]

They shouldn’t include the box anymore or plastic either. Since it’s been shrinking and it’s also waste. Just hand out the phones, no box no cable no charger. ?? The logic here is so weird lately! Lol.

Very true

 

[raveelement]

The amount of kool aid here is sad.

My 1tb iphone 13 pro was almost 1.6k and it came with no charging brick in the box, that is pure corporate greed. There are plenty on the shelves for you to buy all packaged up in additional wasteful boxing and it costs an additional 30-50 bucks.

They advertise fast charging yet do not include what is needed to achieve that in the box. I bought two iphones for Christmas for my folks and guess what, I had to buy two bricks separately, cool additional 100$ for apple.

Saving the environment, give me a ****ing break.

The reason why no reputable outlet will go out of their way to criticize apple for this practice is because they will get blacklisted from launch press events so they wont be able to go hands and write up their articles or get early review units so their launch reviews go live the day of release.

Apple has a monopoly on positive coverage and at this stage can do whatever the hell they want and sheep here will go out of their way to argue how positive this change is.

YES we have plenty of 5watt chargers at home and guess what they are useless. The reason apple does not include chargers anymore is because of their profit margins, under Cook the penny crunching is ruthless hence their trillion evaluation.

Again, I paid $1500 dollars for my iphone and i had to give apple more money to be able to charge it, let that sink in.

Saving the environment argument is the equivalent to a "Putin tax hike", its comedy.

 

[ratspg]

Everybody here is either an Apple Shareholder or on Apples legal team or MagSafe design team ??. Charger should be included with the device. Period. This is a money grab.