Five Chinese university students have jointly filed a lawsuit against Apple in China. The Chinese students are suing Apple for failing to include a charger for an iPhone 12 they purchased. According to reports, the lawsuit has been put forward for ‘public interest’ status, suggesting that it could be fast-tracked or given a higher profile. The university students have demanded that Apple make provision for the iPhone they purchased immediately.
In 2020, Apple put an end to the practice of adding earpods and wall chargers to iPhones while only including a USB-C lightning cable in its packaging. Apple discontinued the practice in a bid to reduce carbon emissions and the use of precious materials while citing to make products more environment-friendly. As a result of this practice, Apple says about 2 million metric tons of carbon will be saved annually, an equivalent of removing 450,000 cars annually.
While some have taken Apple’s practice lightly and moved on, others didn’t, instead, they’ve accused Apple of its plans being motivated by profit. A plot to save its resources while making more money off the sale of accessories. In Brazil, Apple has been fined to the tune of $2M for its “misleading advertising, selling a device without the charger and unfair terms” by the consumer protection regulatory body – Procon-SP. The body accuses Apple of playing foul with her products. In France, Apple was forced to agree to a box-within-a-box solution, an arrangement that will see that Apple continue to make provision for EarPods in compliance with regulatory laws.
Apple’s representative noted that while Apple introduced the iPhone 12 series in the month of October last year, the company made it clear that the iPhone 12’s packaging will come with no charger included. The representative has claimed it is a common practice to see mobile phone companies sell their phones without chargers. The case is still making progress but has since gone viral across Chinese social media and blogs. Reports say the case is still on the verge of making significant progress, and there are little or no guarantees that Apple will either compensate the students or make a change to its no-charger policy.
The students believed to be from Beijing and Shanghai resulted to challenge Apple’s argument on environment-friendly products in court. The student strongly believes Apple’s choice on environmental concerns is an informal excuse to promote the recently launched MagSafe chargers. According to a report by Shanghai Law Journal, the university students have demanded that the company include a wall charger for an iPhone 12 Pro Max they purchased, pay 100 yuan ($16) for contract breach, and also cover the entire legal fees for the lawsuit. Many say that the lawsuit may target the iPhone 12, however, the outcome of any ruling would, of course, be applied to the iPhone 13 and models after it.
Interestingly, another twist to the argument is that the cable on its own is no good because it’s a USB-C one, and while everyone has USB-A chargers, not everyone has a USB-C one. One of the students argued at the Beijing Internet Court that the USB-C to Lightning cable that came in the iPhone 12 box was not compatible with other chargers in the market. The case awaiting further info from both the students and Apple.
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
