For years, Apple has decided not to include the i battery charger in the packaging of its devices, but the controversies surrounding this choice continue: the latest sanction for the Cupertino company comes from Brazil.
A recent one judgment of the civil court of Goinia has in fact sentenced Apple to pay a symbolic fine of the value of 5000 real (or just over 1000 euros) to a customer for unfair commercial practice.
The failure to include the charger in the iPhone packaging, according to the indictment, would in fact constitute a case of tie-in saltas one of the products is bound in the presence of the other in order to function:
“The charging base is an essential element for the effective functioning of the purchased item, since its absence forces the consumer to connect the telephone cable to a computer or to any device that supplies energy indirectly, and not to a common outlet. Therefore, forcing the consumer to buy some object that recharges the phone battery is at least inappropriate, as well as obviously a case of a tie-in sale. [] abusive practice and prohibited by consumer legislation“.
The defense of Apple was worth nothing, which pointed out the presence in the packaging of the iPhones of a connector Lightning – USB Type-C, which also allows third party chargers to be used. As the judge pointed out, the USB Type-C socket is not one today however standard universal.
In fact, Apple does not provide the charging base in the packaging of its iPhones starting from 2020, controversial decision from the beginning that the company has always justified with the will to respect theenvironment and avoid wasting materials used.
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However, the judge points out, this advantage would be nullified by the fact that Apple continues to sell separately its chargers, without however having ever officially demonstrated the actual advantage in terms of sustainability. On this last point, Apple had already been condemned to a much higher fine again in Brazil in 2021, equivalent to almost 2 million euros.
The sanction of the Goinia court comes a few hours after the last resolution of the Commission for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection of European Parliamentwhich in the bill on the new charging standards included the request for to specify the presence or absence of a charger on the packages.
