A Sao Paulo court judge fined Apple $20 million on Thursday for selling its iPhones without chargers. The judge also called this an abusive practice that forces its customers to buy an additional product.
This lawsuit was filed by the Brazilian Consumers Association and a fine of 100 million reais was awarded as damages.
This judgment came after Brazil's justice ministry slapped the company with a separate fine of $2.5 million for the same issue last month. The ministry also banned the company from selling its iPhone 12 and 13 models without chargers.
The US tech giant had stopped including charger outlets with the new iPhones in October 2020 claiming that this was to reduce electronic waste. But Judge Caramuru Afonso Francisco in his ruling wrote that the move requires consumers to purchase a second product in order for the phone to work.
He ordered Apple to supply chargers to all the consumers who have purchased iPhone models 12 or 13 in the country in the past two years and he has also asked them to begin including them with all new purchases.
Apple is also facing charger-related issues in Europe as the European Parliament passed a law requiring all smartphones, tablets and cameras to use USB-C ports as the single charger standard from 2024. Even the Indian government has announced that they will be exploring the use of universal chargers for portable electronics products.
