The debate has been raging for many years – now the EU Commission has presented a legislative proposal for the first time …
Charging cables for cell phones, tablets and headphones are to be standardized in the EU. The EU Commission wants to prescribe the USB-C connection as the standard. Large manufacturers such as Samsung or Xiaomi are already installing the socket in their smartphones. Apple, on the other hand, has so far relied on the self-developed Lightning connector in its iPhone, but has installed USB-C in many tablet models, for example.
“European consumers have been annoyed long enough about incompatible chargers piling up in their drawers”, EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager justified the Commission’s move on Thursday. The environment benefits from a standardization of the charging sockets because there is significantly less electronic waste and consumers would save 250 million euros a year.
The industry association Bitkom sees things differently: “If a not exactly small proportion of smartphone users can no longer use their previous charging cables for new devices as a result of such an intervention, this will increase the amount of electronic waste. This also applies to additional equipment such as headphones or docking stations. “
In addition, many manufacturers are “already much further than politics,” according to Bitkom. For example, they rely on wireless charging based on the manufacturer-independent Qi standard. Apple is also aiming to charge devices wirelessly in the future.
In a statement, Apple said it was “still concerned that a strict regulatory framework, which only requires one type of charging socket, hinders innovation rather than encourages”. This harms consumers in Europe and around the world.
Manufacturers are already doing without power supplies
The EU Commission wanted to establish a uniform charging plug more than ten years ago. At that time it was supposed to be the now completely outdated micro-USB connector. This did not happen, instead 14 mobile phone manufacturers – including Apple – agreed in 2009 under pressure from the EU Commission in a voluntary commitment on a uniform standard for power supplies.
In the meantime, only three of the dozen types of charging cables remained: the technically outdated Micro-USB, the newer USB-C and the thinner Lightning connectors from Apple.
Now the USB-C sockets are to become the standard in smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and hand-held consoles. In addition, the EU Commission proposes that consumers should be able to buy new devices without a charger in the future – after all, power supplies would be lying around in most households anyway. For this reason, manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung are already foregoing power supplies in their current cell phone models.
It will take some time before the USB-C connection is actually raised to an EU-wide standard. First of all, the EU Parliament and EU states have to negotiate on this. The new rules then have to be converted into national law before manufacturers are granted a transition period of two years.
Apple has already signaled that they consider this transition period to be far too short. It would pose a big problem for the industry. But they want to continue to work with the Commission to understand the details of the bill.
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