Brazilian consumer protection regulator, Procon-SP, has fined Apple $2 million for not including chargers in new iPhone 12 boxes, reported 9to5Mac.
Brazilian consumer protection regulator, Procon-SP, has fined Apple $2 million for not including chargers in new iPhone 12 boxes, reported 9to5Mac.
Apple is being fined by Procon-SP for carrying out “misleading advertising,” for “selling a device without a charger,” and for “unfair terms.”
Apple had pre-warned consumers that it would be selling its iPhone 12 without chargers or earbuds back in October last year and even mentioned in June last year that its future iPhones would not be coming with new chargers, citing environmental concerns, and cost-cutting tactics.
Instead of chargers, Apple said it would include a USB-C to Lightning cable with future iPhone 12 boxes, which would reduce the size of the boxes the smartphone comes in and reducing the raw materials for each sold iPhone.
The ploy could have less to do with environmental impact and more to do with Apple being able to ship more boxes, as some critics of the move say.
Apple isn’t the only electronics company to start thinking about this trend, as Samsung declared last year as well that it was thinking of not including new chargers with its new smartphones.
However, as 9to5Mac points out, Procon-SP noted that Apple “didn’t demonstrate environmental gain” by not including chargers.
Not just a charger issue between Apple and Brazil
One of the main points of contention that Procon-SP has with Apple’s decision to not include chargers is whether or not the cost of the iPhone 12 will be reduced.
Procon-SP also asked Apple to break down the price of the iPhone without a charger, and if it has, in fact, minimized the number of chargers it usually produces. Apple has yet to respond.
On top of the charger issue, the Brazilian regulator also pointed out a few other problems it has with Apple, which include failing to respond to consumers who had “problems with some functions.”
It looks like Apple has some answering to do in order to keep certain customers in Brazil happy. But as The Verge points out, a $2 million fine isn’t a huge dent for Apple, which had $111.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021.
Originally Published at Interesting Engineering