BRUSSELS: EU member states and parliament on Tuesday (June 7) agreed to the text of the law applying standard chargers to smartphones and tablets sold in the bloc, aimed at Apple.
For most mobile devices, pass-through charging required USB Type-C port will be effective from the end of 2024, European ParliamentPress service of said.
The EU believes that standard cables for all devices will reduce e-waste, but Apple argues that a one-size-fits-all charger slows innovation and creates more pollution.
The block is home to 450 million people, some of the richest consumers in the world, and the adoption of USB-C as a cable standard could affect the entire global smartphone market.
“This new law will make the lives of European consumers easier and will be better for the environment,” said MEP Andrey Kovatchev, one of the negotiators.
“It’s time to put an end to the pile of cables we all have in our drawers and save around 11,000 tonnes of e-waste a year,” he said.
Consumers currently have to decide between phones powered by three main chargers: “Lightning” for Apple handsets, micro-USB widely used in most other mobile phones, and USB. Newer -C is being used more and more.
That range has been vastly simplified since 2009, when dozens of different chargers were packaged with cell phones, creating piles of e-waste when users changed brands.
In making its proposal last year, the EU said the current situation was still wasteful and that European consumers were spending around 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) annually on standalone chargers. that they purchased separately.
The European Commission has long defended the voluntary agreement it made with the device industry that was established in 2009 and saw significant cuts in cables, but Apple refuses to abide by it.
Apple, which already uses USB-C connectors on some of its iPads and laptops, has insisted on any legislation to force a universal charger for all mobile phones. European Union is unfounded.
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