Apple Inc has been barred from selling iPhones without a charger in Brazil and fined more than US$2 million over the issue, the Brazilian government said on Tuesday, after accusing the US tech giant of “discriminatory practices.”
In an official notice, Brazilian authorities ordered “the immediate suspension of the distribution of iPhone brand smartphones, regardless of model or generation, that are not accompanied by a battery charger.”
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security ordered the California company to pay a fine of 12.28 million reais (nearly US$2.4 million).
Photo: Bloomberg
The measure from the Brazilian Department of Consumer Protection and Defense effectively prohibits the sale of all iPhone 12 and 13 models.
Apple has been under investigation in Brazil since December last year for “the sale of an incomplete product,” “discrimination against the consumer” and “the transfer of responsibility to third parties” by offering iPhone 12s and newer versions without chargers for power outlets, an official statement said.
The company has faced fines from Brazilian state agencies before, but “did not take any measures to minimize the harm and until now continued to sell the cellular devices without chargers,” the statement said.
Brazilian authorities said that Apple alleges that the decision to exclude chargers from iPhone sales comes from an “environmental commitment.”
However, the ministry determined “there is no effective demonstration of environmental protection on Brazilian soil as a consequence” of Apple’s policy, and accused the company of “deliberate discriminatory practices against consumers.”
“There is no justification for an operation which, in aiming to reduce carbon emissions, leads to the introduction into the consumer market of a product whose use depends on the acquisition of another [product] which is also marketed by the company,” the official notice added.
Apple plans to appeal the ban by Brazil, saying the company has helped reduce environmental waste by not including the accessory with new devices.
“At Apple, we consider our impact on people and the planet in everything we do,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “Power adapters represented our largest use of zinc and plastic and eliminating them from the box helped cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions — equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road per year.”
Apple said it would continue working with Brazil’s consumer protection agency to “address their concerns and plan to appeal this decision.”
“We’ve already won a number of court decisions in Brazil on this topic and are confident our customers are aware of the various options to charge and connect their devices,” the company said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS