It wasn’t too long ago when we were still receiving charging blocks with the purchase of our smartphones. The world was happy. People were adding new blocks to their collection with every new phone. That is until 2020 when Apple decided to remove the charging blocks from newer iPhones. Thus, started a trend of other companies doing the same.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
While many people were unhappy about the switch from always getting a new power brick to not getting one, Apple (and other companies) was saving money and is saying it’s better for the environment. However, a judge in Brazil is forcing the Cupertino-based company to pay a man $5,000 Brazilian real or about US$1,082 because he was unhappy for not getting a charger inside the box with his iPhone. The judge is siding with the man stating it’s an abusive and prohibited practice in Brazil.
“According to article 39 of the Consumer Code (CDC), ‘tie sale’ is an abusive and prohibited practice in Brazil, so it is not allowed to sell cell phone and charger separately. Therefore, Apple is being sentenced after selling an iPhone model and charger separately to a consumer in the city of Goiânia. According to the result issued by Judge Vanderlei Caires Pinheiro, of the 6th Civil Court of Goiânia, Apple must compensate the consumer R$ 5 thousand for carrying out the ‘tie sale’ of the company’s devices.”
A “tie sale” is a practice that directly forces the consumer to purchase two products in order for one to work as intended. In this case, a phone and a charger. While Apple argues that people already have chargers, that isn’t enough to make the judge think otherwise. While people do have chargers in their homes for their iPhones, the iPhone 12 and 13 require a charger with a minimum of 20 watts, rendering an old iPhone charger that produces 5 watts useless.
It will be interesting after this lawsuit if Apple and other companies will continue to offer their smartphones without chargers or be forced to start including them again.
What do you think about Apple having to pay over US$1000 to a man for not including the charging block with his new iPhone? Please share your thoughts on any of the social media pages listed below. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
