A little over five years ago, Apple filed a $23 million lawsuit against a Canadian recycling firm, GEEP Canada. Cupertino’s tech giant then alleged that GEEP Canada stole nearly 100,000 iPhones and other Apple devices and resold them. Now, five years later, Apple has mysteriously dropped the lawsuit against the recycler without any further explanation.
Apple drops lawsuit against Canadian recycler accused of stealing & reselling iPhones
The news comes via Bloomberg, which yesterday reported that Apple has applied for a dismissal motion exactly a day before the case enters its fifth year. The whole story dates back to 2017, when Apple, during an audit, found that GEEP Canada had failed to recycle nearly 100,000 devices.
The wrongdoing came to light when Apple auditors found out that GEEP Canada stored Apple Watches in a section without surveillance cameras. After suspecting foul play, Apple reportedly tracked the serial number of devices that it sent for recycling. Then, it compared them to the devices that were activated in Chinese cellular networks.
Later, Apple claimed that GEEP Canada stole 99,975 devices and resold them in the Chinese gray market. After nearly three years, in 2020, Apple filed a lawsuit against GEEP Canada in this matter. While the Canada-based recycler acknowledged all the accusations, it didn’t take the blame for itself. GEEP Canada then clarified that some of its employees were responsible for the foul play.
Apple didn’t take any action other than filing the lawsuit
Surprisingly, Apple was quite casual about the whole matter. That’s because filing the lawsuit was the only legal step the tech giant took. There were no trials or further motions. No one knows why Apple didn’t pursue the case or why it officially applied for its dismissal. A wild guess could be that Apple may have gotten what it wanted. Even before Apple filed the lawsuit, GEEP Canada ceased operations, while Quantum Lifecycle Partners merged the recycling firm in October 2019, eventually killing its existence.
