After five years, Apple has dropped a $23 million lawsuit against recycling firm Geep Canada, with no explanation for how the alleged theft of 100,000 iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch was resolved.
While the lawsuit was not revealed until October 2020, it was in January that year that Apple filed its suit against Geep Canada. The company began recycling devices for Apple in 2014, but during an audit in 2017, Apple claimed to have discovered that Geep had failed to destroy almost 100,000 devices.
The discovery was reportedly made after Apple’s auditors visited Geep’s facility and found Apple Watches being stored in a section without security cameras.
Apple tracked the serial numbers of devices sent to Geep, and then compared those to devices being activated on cellular networks in China. Noting that this would not have uncovered non-cellular devices, Apple claimed that Geep had resold at least 99,975 devices.
The company then filed a lawsuit against Geep Canada in January 2020. Geep Canada acknowledged the accusations, but blamed the incidents on what it called “rogue employees,” which it then itself sued.
Apple’s filing of the suit, though, appears to have been the only legal step the company took. Specifically, four years later AppleInsider reported that there had not been any trial, nor any further motions.
Under Canadian law, the suit would automatically be dismissed after five years of inactivity. But now according to Bloomberg, Apple applied for a dismissal motion exactly one day short of the case’s fifth anniversary.
It’s not clear why Apple formally applied for the dismissal, instead of just letting it drop automatically. It’s also not clear why Apple didn’t continue to pursue the case, but it’s possible that simply filing it accomplished what Apple wanted.
While Apple seemingly never got the roughly $23 million it sought in damages, the suit did cap an investigation that effectively destroyed Geep Canada — and sent a message to other recycling firms.
“The business imploded when we had this Apple thing,” an ex-Geek executive said. “Imagine if you’re HP and dealing with Geep. You have to question: ‘If they do that to Apple, what are they going to do to us?'”
Apple accused Geep Canada at some point in 2018. In October 2019, before Apple filed its lawsuit, the company ceased operations and its operations were merged with another group of recycling firms to form Quantum Lifecycle Partners.
Separately, Apple has continued in its own recycling efforts, plus regularly promoted those efforts as part of its environmental efforts. Plus Tim Cook has even said that AI already plays a key role in Apple’s recycling efforts.
