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Apple Ordered to Stop Selling iPhones Without Charger in Brazil [Updated]

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The Justice Ministry in Brazil today ordered Apple to stop selling iPhones without a charger in the box, reports Reuters. Brazilian officials say that Apple is giving customers an incomplete product when the power adapter is not included with the purchase, a move the government claims is a "deliberate discriminatory practice against consumers."

iphone-12-no-charger-earpods.jpg

Apple has been fined 12.275 million reais (~$2.34 million) for selling iPhones without chargers, and Brazilian officials are forcing the company to cease offering any iPhone that does not come with a power adapter, including the iPhone 12 and newer.

The Brazilian state of São Paulo previously fined Apple close to $2 million for not providing a charger with modern iPhones, which the São Paulo consumer protection agency said was a violation of Consumer Law Code. Apple also lost a 2022 lawsuit in the country after a customer who did not receive a charger sued.

Apple has told Brazilian officials that not including a power adapter with the iPhone offers environmental benefits and cuts down on waste, but Brazil has thus far rejected this argument.

Apple stopped providing chargers with iPhones starting with the 2020 launch of the iPhone 12 lineup. In most countries, Apple no longer ships iPhones with EarPods or a power adapter, including just a USB-C to Lightning charging cable. Apple says that most customers already have power adapters on hand to charge with, and has told customers that removing these accessories is part of its effort to "reach [its] environmental goals."

The Justice Ministry's order comes one day ahead of Apple's iPhone 14 announcement, which will see the debut of updated iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models.

Update 1:40 p.m.: In a statement to Bloomberg, Apple says it will appeal the ruling:
"At Apple, we consider our impact on people and the planet in everything we do," the company said in an emailed statement. "Power adapters represented our largest use of zinc and plastic and eliminating them from the box helped cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions -- equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road per year." [...]

"We've already won a number of court decisions in Brazil on this topic and are confident our customers are aware of the various options to charge and connect their devices," the Cupertino, California-based company said.
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Article Link: Apple Ordered to Stop Selling iPhones Without Charger in Brazil [Updated]
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/09/06/brazil-apple-iphones-no-charger-dispute/
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This should have been done in the U.S. too. So many people out there buy iPhones and they have no idea they have to buy and pay for the charger separately. Or Apple could have provided a free charger if needed.

Think of going to Mcdonalds and ordering a 🍔 Big mac. But you don't get any buns and cheese. You have to ask for the buns and cheese to be included for some extra $.
 
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WiiDSmoker said:
Good. I’m all for cutting down on waste but we all know it’s straight up a money grab. If it weren’t, Apple would allow people to get a free charger per new iPhone if truly needed.
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I thought that when this started, but then would you have to prove somehow you did need one, which there is no way to prove. Everyone would get one if it were free. It was more obviously a money grab because the phone price stayed the say or increased.
 
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They are totally right on this one! I’m with Brazil.. I want a charger with my new iPhone. Saying it’s cheaper is just nonsense, the iPhone this year is going up in price anyway. They should be forced to sell them with chargers again. If I sell my iPhone to someone else the first thing they ask for is the charger with it, resell shops here in Ireland won’t take phones without a charger either. It’s a rip off for customers. It’s APPLE saving money and making more for users to pay a new charger! Not us!
 
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WiiDSmoker said:
Good. I’m all for cutting down on waste but we all know it’s straight up a money grab. If it weren’t, Apple would allow people to get a free charger per new iPhone if truly needed.
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I'm not even convinced it actually cut down waste. They switched the included cable to USB-C -> Lightning rather than USB-A, and many people don't have extra USB-C charging bricks lying around. That resulted in a lot of people now having to buy separate chargers with their iPhones, and those of course came in their own packaging and generated more waste (and emissions from transportation) than just packaging it with the phone would have.

I'm not even quite sure why they did it. The charger can't have been expensive to manufacture and there isn't exactly a huge opportunity cost to it either (not everyone is going to buy the official Apple branded charger). It just doesn't make much sense to me.
 
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compwiz1202 said:
I thought that when this started, but then would you have to prove somehow you did need one, which there is no way to prove. Everyone would get one if it were free. It was more obviously a money grab because the phone price stayed the say or increased.
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The fact Apple did not even drop the price of the iPhone by $29 US dollars tells you it was for a money grab. At least lower the price of the iPhone since they eliminated the charger but they didn't do that. The prices stayed the same or in other cases, it increased whoppingly.
 
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The thing is that while Apple claims that they removed it for environmental reasons they kept the product price the same...

It would have been better if they either discounted the price of the charger of the iPhone's price or offered it for free in the moment of purchase.
 
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
This should have been done in the U.S. too. So many people out there buy iPhones and they have no idea they have to buy and pay for the charger separately. Or Apple could have provided a free charger if needed.

Think of going to Mcdonalds and ordering a 🍔 cheeseburger without any bun and cheese. You have to ask for the buns and cheese to be included.
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Yup, and seeing as how majority of people in the US are still making their phone purchases by walking into a carrier store, this is my experience talking but many of these store representatives know very little about the devices they're selling and I would be surprised if they disclose to a buyer of an iPhone, "sir/ma'am, just wanna make you aware that the phone doesn't come with a charger, you would need to buy one separately if you don't already have one".
 
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jns2001 said:
Suitable for the people of Brazil. Apple delivers a Lightning to USB-C; who had a USB-C charger prior if the only product from Apple they had was an iPhone?
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If you were the small small minority who purchased a iPhone 11 Pro the year prior, and even then that was the older 18W charger not the 20W charger we have now.
compwiz1202 said:
Some do. I have them from all the iPhones before they stopped. But there will always be first timers who will need one. I think what made it worse is they cable is now USB-C. Near everyone should have some sort of USB-A port on something, but C isn't as common.
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Well yeah, that's my point. I didn't own one thing that supported USB-C before 2020. Everyone that I know who purchased the iPhone 12 and newer bought a separate charger with their purchase. Not very environmentally friendly huh?
 
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