Apple has been fined $19 million in Brazil for not including chargers in iPhones sold within the country.
Earlier this year, the Brazilian government fined Apple $2.3 million for not including basic accessories, and suspended the sale of iPhones in the country.
Apple appealed the court’s decision, and last week, a São Paulo court ruled against Apple again and fined the company $19 million.
Since 2020, Apple has been thinking outside the box, excluding chargers and earphones from all new iPhones.
Its official reason? It wants to be carbon-neutral by 2030, and removing chargers and earphones reduces two million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. A more truthful reason might be tied to news that the company has saved $6.5 billion by removing accessories, and this is making up for the billions it’s spending on 5G accessories for newer iPhone models.
The accessory removal has been met with scepticism and pushback from users across the globe. In France, for example, the tech giant was forced to include earphones with iPhones in compliance with French laws that seek to prevent RF radiation from direct contact from iPhones while receiving calls. This law was later revoked in 2022.
The European Parliament also recently approved a new law that mandates all devices sold within the European Union to have a USB-C charging port, a big change from Apple’s standard lightning port.
