Apple sues firm for reselling 1 lakh devices meant for recycling

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In a bizarre incident, Apple has sued electronic recycling company GEEP Canada for allegedly stealing and reselling nearly one lakh iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches it was supposed to destroy and recycle.</p>
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According to a report in The Logic, Apple said in a lawsuit that the resales "damaged demand for new Apple products, created safety issues for consumers and hurt its brand".</p>
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Apple is seeking full recovery of the profits made from the resale of these devices, plus $31 million Canadian dollars (US$22.7 million).</p>
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Ontario-based GEEP has denied all wrongdoing, filing a third-party counter lawsuit that claimed that three of its employees engaged in the theft without the firm's knowledge.</p>
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Apple, however, argued that these employees were part of senior management at the company.</p>
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Apple's lawsuit stated that the company shipped 531,966 iPhones to GEEP Canada for recycling between January 2015 and December 2017, along with 25,673 iPads, and 19,277 Apple Watches.</p>
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Approximately 18 per cent or 103,845 of all those devices were reportedly discovered by Apple to "be active on carrier networks".</p>
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Apple said that the number of stolen devices will be considerably higher since non-LTE ones wouldn't be shown.</p>
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"At least 11,766 pounds of Apple devices left GEEP's premises without being destroyed — a fact that GEEP itself confirmed," Apple said in its lawsuit.</p>
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Apple is pioneering a new path to help push the recycling industry forward.</p>
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The tech giant has received nearly 1 million devices through Apple programmes and its recycling robot Daisy can disassemble 1.2 million devices per year.</p>
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In 2018, the company refurbished more than 7.8 million Apple devices and helped divert more than 48,000 metric tonnes of electronic waste from landfills.</p>