A regional court in Brazil ordered Apple to compensate a customer after they complained about not getting a charger in the retail box. According to the court ruling, Apple will have to pay a sum of 5,000 Brazilian real, which equates to approximately $1,080, to the affected iPhone buyer.
The company will add a 1% fee for each month since the court summons began, and a fine of $21 for each day of delay in following the orders. The customer will be provided a charger by Apple.
The charging accessory is a necessary item for operating a phone. The judge labeled Apple's no-charger policy as abusive to consumer rights. Apple's logic of skipping the inbox charge because it harms the environment was lambasted by the court.
Apple's environmental concerns are unwarranted according to the judge of the 6th Special Civil Court. The company continues to make and sell charging adapters. The MagSafe puck and the traditionalUSB-C brick are available from Apple.
This is not the first time that Apple's no charging policy has attracted scrutiny in Brazil. Procon-SP levied a $2 million fine on Apple for not including a charger in the retail package for the iPhone 12.
In October, the agency slapped Apple with another $2 million fine for repeating the offense with the iPhone 13 series phones. In the state of Sao Paolo, Procon-SP asked Apple to ship the iPhone 12 units with a charging port.
The Consumer Protection Code was brought up in Apple's latest legal tussle, as the court made it clear that forcing consumers to fork out extra money for a charging accessory is not reasonable.
Apple has reaped financial benefits by abandoning the in-box charger. The company has saved over $6 billion by not including earphones in the retail package. The smaller box saved Apple money on shipping and logistical expenses.
Fortunately, for Apple, the company will get away with paying just over a thousand dollars in its latest legal skirmish, because it was a single buyer knocking at the court's door with a complaint. If the case had been granted class-action status, the company would have been forced to compensate all affected buyers.
In October of last year, five students from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Donghua University filed a lawsuit against Apple over its no-charging policy, with the goal of elevating it to class-action status. Apple will spend all of its resources to avoid such a scenario, especially with the company's lobbying expenses reaching a record high in 2022, due to antitrust concerns.
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