Brazilian watchdog starts seizing Apple iPhones from retail stores due to charger ruling

A couple of months ago, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice ordered the suspension of Apple’s iPhone sales in the country for not including chargers with each purchase and forcing their customers to buy chargers separately. Brazil even fined Apple millions of dollars twice and ordered the tech giant to start shipping iPhones with chargers in the country, if they wanted to sell their devices. This judgement was passed right around the time Apple started shipping their latest iPhone 14 series.   [caption id=“attachment_11694481” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The Brazilian Ministry of Justice had previously ordered Apple to sell iPhones with a charger and to stop selling iPhones until the comply. Apple appealed the ruling and continued selling iPhones, believing that because the matter was under an appeal, they could continue selling iPhones.[/caption] Apple appealed the decision, believing they could keep selling iPhones as the matter was under consideration. The Federal District-base consumer protection regulator has decided to seize iPhones from carriers and Apple Premium Resellers in an operation called Discharge. As discovered by the Brazilian website Tecnoblog, PROCON-DF is forcing Apple to comply with a local law that requires smartphones to be shipped with the charger in the box. After the operation, Apple Brazil requested the government to keep allowing iPhone sales until the final dispute, in which Apple said it would continue to sell iPhones in Brazil. This is the first time a Brazilian watchdog has seized iPhones. Previously, in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, PROCON-SP fined Apple due to the lack of the charger in the iPhone’s box, although it hadn’t seized any model being sold. Apple said it’s confident it will win the legal dispute and that customers “are aware of the various options for charging and connecting their devices.” Apple still says that removing the charger is part of the goal to become carbon-neutral by 2030. In addition, since Brazilian’s FCC-like agency approved all iPhone models since the iPhone 12 without the charger, the company is technically not breaking any rule. That said, it’s interesting to note that while Apple removed the USB-C cable to charge the Siri Remote of the new Apple TV 4K in the US, Brazil’s offering still has the cable as Apple is likely trying to avoid more problems with the local authority.