You might have heard that the latest iPhones will not come with a charger inside the box. Every box of iPhone 12 will include only a lightning-to-USB-C cable. So, people who are new iPhone users will have to purchase the power adapter separately.
While Apple is known to take bold decisions, people are not happy with this decision. Back in Dec 2020, a consumer advocacy group in Europe slammed apple with a lawsuit for intentionally throttling older iPhones in Italy. And it seems like that was the start of lawsuits against this billion-dollar company as brazil has filed another lawsuit against it.
A customer protection agency called Procon-SP filed a lawsuit for $2 million in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This time the lawsuit has been filed due to the company, not including chargers with iPhone 12 boxes. Procon-SP said that Apple is selling its products in unfair terms but not including basic accessories like its charger with the phone.
It was announced by Apple in October 2020 that its new launch of the iPhone 12 won’t have a charger or earbuds in its boxes and gave environmental concerns as to its reasons for doing the same. They also said that the box would contain a USB-C to lightning cable with iPhone 12, which would ultimately help in reducing the overall raw materials consumed for selling each iPhone. They have also reduced the size of the phone’s boxes to show their concern towards raw material usage.
However, people didn’t agree with the reasoning. Many have criticized this move stating that Apple only wishes to reduce its overall shipping cost than do anything for the environment. Even the environmental experts gave their input on this issue and said that this change won’t bring about a huge impact on any issues.
How did Apple respond to it?
Apple has refused to give any response to the inquiries made by Procon regarding the reduction in prices of the iPhone 12. They wondered if the prices of the phone would reduce given the fact that chargers won’t be included in the box. However, they have received no replies from the company.
Procon accused Apple of not being customer-friendly as it has failed to resolves issues of customers with regards to certain functions and updates of their iPhones. “Apple needs to understand that in Brazil there are solid consumer protection laws and institutions. It needs to respect these laws and these institutions” said Mr. Fernando Capez, Executive Director, Procon-SP.
While Apple hasn’t responded to anything, we still know that this fine isn’t going to cause them any harm for it generated $114.4 billion in revenue recently.
