Five years later, Apple has dropped a $23 million lawsuit against recycling company GeepCanada, without explaining how the alleged theft of 100,000 iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches would be resolved. Although the lawsuit was not disclosed until October 2020, Apple filed a lawsuit against GeepCanada in January of that year.
The company began recycling devices for Apple in 2014, but during a 2017 audit, Apple claimed to have found that Geep failed to destroy nearly 100,000 devices as required.
Apple auditors reportedly discovered during a visit to the Geep factory that the Apple Watch was being stored in an area without security cameras.
Apple tracked the serial numbers of devices sent to Geep and then compared those serial numbers to devices activated on Chinese cellular networks. Apple noted that this would not detect non-cellular devices and claimed that Geep resold at least 99,975 devices.
The company subsequently filed a lawsuit against Geep Canada in January 2020. Geep Canada acknowledged the charges but blamed the incidents on so-called "rogue employees," against whom it subsequently filed a lawsuit.
However, Apple's lawsuit appears to be the only legal action the company has taken. Specifically, four years later no trial has taken place and no further motions have been filed.
Under Canadian law, the lawsuit will be automatically dismissed after five years of inactivity. But according to Bloomberg, Apple filed for a motion to dismiss just one day before the fifth anniversary of the case.
It’s unclear why Apple formally filed to dismiss the lawsuit instead of automatically dismissing it. It's also unclear why Apple didn't pursue the lawsuit, but it's possible that simply filing a lawsuit would have achieved what Apple wanted.
While Apple never appears to have been awarded the roughly $23 million it sought, the lawsuit did end an investigation that effectively destroyed GeepCanada and sent a warning to other recycling companies.
"When we had the Apple problem, the business collapsed," said one former Geek executive. "Imagine if you were HP and you were dealing with Geep. Having to ask: 'If they do this to Apple, what are they going to do to us?'"
Apple filed charges against GeepCanada sometime in 2018. In October 2019, before Apple filed the lawsuit, the company ceased operations and merged with another recycling company to form Quantum Lifecycle Partners.
Additionally, Apple continues its recycling efforts and regularly promotes these efforts as part of its environmental efforts. In addition, Tim Cook even said that artificial intelligence has played a key role in Apple's recycling work.