In September, Apple said that it’ll stop shipping a power brick with the Apple Watch. The next month, the company followed it up by removing the wall charger from the iPhone 12 range.
While consumers around the world were not happy with the decision, there was nothing they could do. However, a decision by the consumer protection agency in Brazil will force the company to ship iPhones with the wall charger included.
Procon-SP, the consumer interest agency for Sao Paulo state, asked Apple to provide justification for not including the power brick in iPhones back in October. Apple justified the decision by claiming environmental reasons and sayingmany consumers already have a compatible charger.
However, the agency was not satisfied with the iPhone maker’s answers and said that the power brick was an essential part of the iPhone’s package. Apple has to respond to the decision immediately to avoid a fine.
As 9to5Mac noted, apart from just Sao Paulo state authorities, Brazil’s National Consumer Secretary is also contemplating asking Apple to ship wall chargers with iPhones across the country.
This isn’t the first legal challenge Apple has had while removing items from the iPhone box. Due to a French law mandating handset makers must ship their devices with hands-free solutions, the company had to include earpods with the iPhone in the country — something it has stopped doing in other markets across the world.
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Published December 3, 2020 — 12:01 UTC