Brazil has brought forward new legislation that would ban Apple from selling new iPhones in the country without included charging bricks. Apple says they will appeal this ruling through the courts, saying that they have helped reduce environmental waste by not including the accessory with new devices. While this may be true to some extent, most people believe it simply squeezes more profits from customers.
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“At Apple, we consider our impact on people and the planet in everything we do,” the company said in a 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.”
The first time Apple stopped shipping charging bricks with their new iPhones was back in 2020. The outcry from customers and the tech community lasted for about three minutes, prompting others to do the same, including the likes of Samsung and Huawei.
Apple says that there are already billions of USB-A adapters in the world that customers can use to charge their devices. The company said this week that it would continue working with SENACON, 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,” Apple said.
This week will be an Apple heavy week in the industry. The new iPhone 14 range will be released today, after we’ve seen through leaks that they will launch an Apple Watch Pro as well alongside the new flagship phones. With all the leaks over the last several weeks, we don’t expect any surprises or that “one more thing…” moment this year.
