Apple has sued a company from Canada that served the group as a recycling partner . According to a report by the local innovation blog The Logic , at a company from Ontario, a total of at least 103,845 iPhones, iPads and Apple Watch devices should not have been recycled as required – i.e. dismantled into their individual parts – but simply resold.
Not “stolen” yourself?
According to the report, Geep, as the company is called, does not deny that the equipment to be recycled has been “stolen”. In Apple’s lawsuit, which was apparently filed in January, it is said that managers of the Canadian company were responsible. According to Geep, it is said to have been “three employees” who would have carried out the resale “without warning others”.
According to Apple, the profit that the thieves took should have ended up with them in full; in addition, around 21 million euros were received. Geep himself wants the employees responsible to be responsible for the damage. It was only on the basis of an audit that Apple discovered that Geep was apparently doing a profitable business with used goods.
An audit proved the theft
After a comparison of serial numbers, it was found that 18 percent of all devices that Geep received for recycling were re-registering on mobile operator networks. The number of stolen hardware could be even higher because WiFi models from iPad and Apple Watch were also included – and they don’t register with cell phone operators.
Apple’s lawsuit is now through the Canadian jurisdiction. The company is demanding the illegally obtained profits and damages from Geep and said 21 million euros. The case shows how valuable used Apple devices can still be – how well they were prepared before being resold (and whether that happened at all) remains unclear. In any case, the thieves apparently found buyers without any problems.