According to court documents seen by tecmundo, Judge Vanderlei Caires Pinheiro of a civil court in the city of Goiânia ruled that Apple’s practice of selling its iPhones and chargers separately was a “married selling,” which means a customer is required to buy two products from a company to make one of them work. According to Article 39 of Brazil’s Consumer Code (CDC), “married selling” is prohibited in the country, so phones cannot be sold without a charger. “The CDC aims to protect the weakest part of the contractual relationship, ensuring it against abusive practices and clauses in the supply of products and services,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
Apple has long put forward the defense that customers are not required to buy a charger, and it includes a USB-C to Lightning cable with the iPhone that can be used with chargers from other companies. But the judge rejected this argument, saying that the cable didn’t work with any wall chargers lacking a USB Type-C port. As for the environmental excuse, Pinheiro pointed out that Apple was still manufacturing the chargers and selling them separately. Apple must now compensate the user 5,000 Brazilian reais (around $1,064) Apple has previously faced problems in Brazil over its lack of included wall chargers. Procon-SP, the consumer protection agency of Sao Paulo, hit Cupertino with a near $2 million fine last year for violating consumer protection laws and failing to prove the claimed environmental benefits of dropping the charger. Parts of the fine were also for misleading advertising, bad customer support, and unfair terms of service. Apple was also sued by students in China for the same reason.
