The iPhone 13 is not even available in Brazil yet, but the country’s consumer protection regulator has already said it’s going to investigate Apple’s decision to sell the iPhone charger separately.
As reported first by TechTudo, Apple and Samsung will be notified for selling the iPhone 13, Galaxy Z Flip3, and Galaxy Z Fold3 without the charger in the box.
This is not the first time that Procon-SP has notified Apple over the decision to sell the iPhone charger separately. Early this year, the Brazilian consumer protection regulator, based in the state of São Paulo, fined Apple $2 million “for misleading advertising, selling a device without the charger, and unfair terms.”
Even before that, in October of 2020, Procon-SP questioned the company about it, and in November, the agency said that the iPhone maker “didn’t demonstrate environmental gain.”
In the interview with TechTudo, Procon-SP’s executive director Fernando Capez says that it’s not legal to sell the phone and charger separately as “you can only charge the device with that power brick,” so therefore “the customer is obligated to buy two products.”
Capez will notify Apple and Samsung by this Wednesday. Even though Apple already says on its website that the power brick doesn’t come with the iPhone 13 box, he believes this is not enough.
The Brazilian FTC also says that companies should extensively inform customers that something changed with a product, in this case, the lack of a charger. “If the information is hidden, it’s also an offense with the law,” Capez says.
Capez says he’s studying a class action to help any customer who feels Apple should give them a charger for free.
Apple didn’t respond to TechTudo, although in March the company said that “all iPhones sold in the country work with the available chargers, including third-party ones since they follow Anatel (Brazilian FCC) standards.”
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