Oct 17, 2022 17:00:00

Apple loses in court again because ``the iPhone does not have a power adapter'' and a large fine is imposed

On October 13, 2022, a Brazilian court fined Apple 100 million reals (about 2.8 billion yen) and ordered that new iPhones sold in the country come with a power adapter. In Brazil, multiple regulators are at odds with Apple over the same issue, but each trial has ruled against Apple.

Brazil court fines Apple, orders to sell iPhone with charger | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/legal/brazil-court-fines-apple-orders-sell-iphone-with-charger-2022-10-13/

Apple slapped with a $19 million fine in Brazil for not selling iPhones with a charger | Engadget
https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-next-generation-of-i-phones-may-all-feature-dynamic-island-displays-111603011.html

On October 13, Apple lost a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian consumer protection association PROTESTE, and the São Paulo state court fined Apple 100 million reals. In addition, the court ordered that all consumers in Brazil who purchased the iPhone 12 series and iPhone 13 series in the past few years be supplied with a power adapter, and that all new iPhone sales come with a power adapter. I was. Apple is dissatisfied with this and intends to appeal.

At the same time as the iPhone 12 launch in 2020, Apple has stopped including a power adapter in the smartphone due to environmental considerations. However, the lack of a power adapter discriminates between first-time iPhone buyers and those who do not, and does not give equal opportunities to provide products that are essential for operation. has been sued many times since.

In November 2021, the plaintiff's claim was accepted in a lawsuit filed by the São Paulo state consumer protection regulatory agency 'PROCON.SP', and Apple was fined 10.5 million reals (approximately 210 million yen at that time). it was done. Apple claimed that by stopping the attachment of the power adapter, transportation efficiency could be increased by up to 1.7 times, saving nearly 860,000 tons of copper, zinc and tin. It was deemed 'a deliberately discriminatory practice against consumers' to sell the device without a power adapter. Brazil's Ministry of Justice refutes Apple's claim, ``We should be able to protect the environment in other ways, such as adopting USB Type-C in devices.''

Furthermore, in April 2022, the Goias state court

ordered Apple to pay 5,000 reals (about 140,000 yen at that time) to consumers who filed complaints. Again, Apple insisted on environmental considerations, but the judge who pronounced the ruling said, ``Apple continues to manufacture accessories that are essential for operation and sells them separately, so the claim does not pass. ', and concluded that it violated Article 39 of the Consumer Law, which prohibits tie-in sales.

In the subsequent judgment in September 2022, Apple was ordered to pay a fine of 12,275,500 reals (about 330 million yen at that time) and suspended the sale of iPhones that did not come with a power adapter. Brazil's state-owned telecommunications agency, Anatel, has been instructed to deregister the iPhone 12 series and beyond, in signs that iPhones without power adapters, which courts consider 'imperfect products,' will be regulated. .

The October 2022 PROTESTE lawsuit took a step further, and Apple faces the challenge of providing consumers with power adapters as mentioned above. The judge in charge of this lawsuit said, ``The lack of a power adapter means that consumers must purchase a ``second product (power adapter)'' in order to operate their first product (iPhone). There is. This is a bad practice.'

In addition, Samsung, which faces the same problem, seems to be overcoming the problem by distributing a free power adapter to consumers who purchased the target terminal.