A Brazilian court on Thursday fined Apple 100 million reais ($19 million) and ruled that battery chargers must accompany new iPhones sold in the country.
A São Paulo state court ruled against Apple in a lawsuit filed by an association of creditors, consumers and taxpayers, which argued that the company sold its flagship product without a charger. commits abuse.
Apple said it would appeal the decision.
Earlier, the tech firm argued that the exercise was aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
“It is clear that, under the guise of a ‘green initiative’, the defendant imposed on consumers the required purchase of charger adapters that were previously supplied with the product,” the judgment read.
Sales of the iPhone 12 and other variants were banned by Brazil’s justice ministry because they didn’t pack charging bricks, claiming the company was “deliberately discriminating against consumers”. , which actually lacks the ‘essential ingredient’.
The Ministry of Justice claimed at the time that there was no evidence that removing the charger would protect the environment.
This comes amidst the newly passed EU law for a universal charger, which could force Apple to kill its proprietary Lightning Connector in favour of the more universally-used USB Type-C connector.
