European Union lawmakers have reached an agreement on legislation that will force all phones sold in the EU to be equipped with the USB-C port for wired charging by fall 2024.
Jon Porter and James Vincent for The Verge:
The rule will also apply to other electronic devices including tablets, digital cameras, headphones, handheld video game consoles, and e-readers. Laptops will have to comply with the rule at a later date.
The legislation has been under development for more than a decade, but an agreement on its scope was reached this morning following negotiations between different EU bodies.
“Today we have made the common charger a reality in Europe!” said the European Parliament’s rapporteur Alex Agius Saliba in a press statement.
The legislation still needs to be approved by the EU Parliament and Council later this year, but this appears to be a formality. In a press release, the European Parliament stated clearly that the law will be in place “by autumn 2024.”
When asked during a press conference if the EU was specifically targeting Apple, Thierry Breton, commissioner for the EU’s internal market, said this was not the case. “The rule applies to all and sundry. It’s not adopted against anybody,” said Breton. “We’re working for the consumers, not the companies, and we have to give these companies rules; rules that are clear in order to enter the internal market.”
Rapporteur Saliba added: “In two years’ time, if Apple wants to sell their products within our internal market they have to abide by our rules, and their device will have to be USB-C.”
However, the EU’s press release says the new legislation applies to devices “that are rechargeable via a wired cable.” This means that Apple may be able to avoid adding USB-C to its devices by creating a phone that only charges wirelessly…
MacDailyNews Take: Again, any government — or, in this case, an extra-national quasi-government-ish body — that mandates technology will stifle innovation. It is a mistake. Luckily, in this case, it won’t matter much. Apple’s iPhones are moving to port-less and, if there is some overlap with USB-C iPhones for a few years, the e-waste created will be minimized.
This isn’t a matter of Lightning vs. USB-C. The problem is the mandating of a certain standard and the innovation it squelches. Idiot bureaucrats never seem to consider unintended consequences, regardless of how obvious they are. This is, as usual, a “sounds great, oh, wait” mistake. (They never seem to be able to even imagine much less consider and weight the “oh, wait” part.)
If you believe the EU will move quickly all of a sudden (it took them over a decade to (almost, not even quite done yet) codify this mistake), as quickly as a tech company like Apple to keep on top of innovation, you’re either a rube or under the age of eight.
USB-C is the wired port now, at least in the EU (and therefore everywhere; nobody is going to make specific devices for the EU which comprises a whopping 5.8% of the world population), pretty much forever.
Big government, quasi or not, is slow and wedded to its own red tape. If something markedly better were to come along, the EU will not magically change their mandate. In fact, what’s the incentive to create a better port than USB-C now? Not only do you have to coax adoption from tech companies as usual, but you’re now also tasked with nightmare and expense of lobbying and convincing a raft of EU bureaucrats to expeditiously agree to change their USB-C mandate.
Forget innovation in wired connectivity. It’s now dead.
Don’t believe? Watch and see. “iCal” us.
This is just needless, slow-as-molasses, bureaucratic meddling in the market; a stick in the spokes that, in the end, will be like mandating a buggy whip with every cart sold, twenty years after the advent of the automobile.
If the EU had passed such a law when this innovation-stifling foolishness was initially proposed, we’d all still be stuck with MicroUSB today!
Regardless, soon Apple’s iPhones won’t have any ports at all. As it stands even today, the Lightning port on our iPhones is a largely superfluous liquid and dust ingress point. If anything, this misguided, shortsighted EU move only hastens Apple’s move to port-free iPhones featuring even better water and dust resistance. – MacDailyNews, June 3, 2022
Years ago, in January 2018, Apple provided feedback on this issue to the European Commission:
Apple stands for innovation. Regulations that would drive conformity across the type of connector built into all smartphones freeze innovation rather than encourage it. Such proposals are bad for the environment and unnecessarily disruptive for customers.
More than 1 billion Apple devices have shipped using a Lightning connector in addition to an entire ecosystem of accessory and device manufacturers who use Lightning to serve our collective customers. We want to ensure that any new legislation will not result in the shipment of any unnecessary cables or external adaptors with every device, or render obsolete the devices and accessories used by many millions of Europeans and hundreds of millions of Apple customers worldwide. This would result in an unprecedented volume of electronic waste and greatly inconvenience users. To be forced to disrupt this huge market of customers will have consequences far beyond the stated aims of the Commission.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
Big government stifling innovation in favor of mandates. As it ever was.
“Let’s be aware of the impact we have, in all ways, and not just those ways we wish.”
― Donald T Iannone
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
― Ronald Reagan
“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”
― Ronald Reagan
“Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem.”
― Ronald Reagan
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
― Ronald Reagan
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”
― Ronald Reagan
“Remember that every government service, every offer of government – financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom… In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service.”
― Ronald Reagan
“If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.”
― Ronald Reagan
“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.”
― Ronald Reagan
“Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.”
― Ronald Reagan
“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
― Ronald Reagan
“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”
― Ronald Reagan
So it’s effective more than two years from now… It doesn’t even mean there is a “common charger” because a little iPhone wall cube won’t charge a big iPad, even if the cable connects. They failed to regulate power level of chargers. People will be confused when a random charger does not work for a random device. Cheap low-quality chargers may damage expensive devices. People will assume it works if it connects, because the bureaucrats said so. They will complain when it doesn’t. Bureaucrats justifying their jobs, making things worse.
Funny to read the anti-government rhetoric here. I do believe government should be as small as possible but in the US it is really to small. I have visited the US many many times and simply love being there. But my goodness, look at the roads and poverty in some places. That just should be possible in a country as wealthy as the US. I’m not a Canadian but if you want to see what a great America should look like, just take a look across the northern border.
And by the way, I support the EU decision. I’m an Apple fanboy and therefore very confident that Apple will be ready for this, one way or another.
In 2021, the U.S. government spent $6.82 trillion. In Fiscal Year 2021, federal spending was equal to 30% of the total gross domestic product (GDP), or economic activity, of the United States that year ($22.39 trillion).
The fact that some roads are falling apart speaks to the inefficiencies, waste, and corruption inherent in bloated government, not a spending issue.
“You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy.”
— Ronald Reagan
“Across the border,” do you mean Canada, where the debt to GDP ratio is 3x what’s in the US? That’s govt for the people for ya. Spending on programs with a certain abandon and the leader will pull/freeze your funds if you don’t act accordingly. Pretty roads though.
Freedom is the highest human prize…but it can have rough edges, for sure.
Freedom isn’t absolute so it cannot be the highest human prize. What good is it when you’re totally free but cannot afford food for your children. And what if your neighbour takes the liberty to park his car in your lawn, in the name of freedom. Everything has boundaries, even freedom. The absolutism in politics is one of the biggest problems in the US. The US is a great nation but the greatest nation on earth? The US never ranks number one on international lists, except when it concerns military expenditure and school shootings.
Why is it “funny” for you to read that people are anti-Big Government?
That you think the U.S. gov’t is “too small,” is hilarious!
As usual, your opinions are not based in fact. The federal government is small and getting relatively smaller, declining from about 3.4% to 1.5% of the total population over the last 6 decades.
We know that you’re going to look at the trends and look hard to find a gotcha moment to pin on a president from the opposing party. You will be disappointed. The only interesting spikes in the curve align with the staff hiring for the US census every decade.
On an appropriate forum, it might be good to discuss government efficiency and such important topics. But the whining that you and your ilk continually offer about government largesse is simply hogwash. The US and all top nations benefit from competent administration to ensure that interstate commerce, defense, justice and law enforcement are all properly carried out. The nations with tiny federal governments are almost all despotic and have horrible quality of life. If you think the US government is too big relative to the tasks that citizens ask of it, then you really need to peel the faded “Support Our Troops” bumper stickers off your truck.
Bravo! Any website that features quotes from spendaholic Reagan to voice displeasure about responsible tech policy has totally lost the plot. Thanks for using facts to set the record straight.
Thank goodness they didn’t mandate SCSI-compatibility.
As with most things, the regulations were drafted with full cooperation with the affected industry association. The USB Implementer Forum, of which Apple is a leading member, will have no problem complying with the wise standardization policy. The world needs more standardization to minimize the wasteful balkanization of interfaces and measures. Nobody is going to suffer including Apple.
The idiots claiming this could stifle innovation: have you read the proposed policy? No innovation hindrance whatsoever. Stop the FUD.
Portless sounds good until you have to transfer large ProRes video files to another device for editing.
The original HomePod was useless with wired connections.
Correction: The HomePod is useless.
The only wired connection the damn thing had was the plug to the wall.
Much old hi fi equipment from dedicated manufacturers offers a more enjoyable experience, with the potential for vastly better sound performance, dramatically better interoperability and versatility, as well as much better user interfaces.
The forced implementation of Siri overshadows any 3D omnidirectional sound processing magic that Apple tried to implement to make a product that is “surprisingly good sound for its size”. Whatever. Either it works as a complete package or it doesn’t. Attempting to replace a versatile amp or receiver and proper speakers with an Apple Rental Music appliance doesn’t solve anything. It was no surprise it’s a sales flop. Apple Music renters will continue to bop around with their headphones. Audiophiles will stick to dramatically superior home audio systems that just work. Nobody with a brain wants spy cans in their houses. Right Siri?
Siri: “I don’t know but Wikipedia says….”
Why doesn’t Apple comply with EU and make USB-C products for EU market? Unfortunately, I think it is inevitable that once Apple complies, the EU will find something new to complain about, and “need” regulation.
But in addition, Apple could make products aimed at the US market (and other non-constrained countries) the way Apple WANTS them. And if Apple applies innovation instead of regulation, some products will eventually morph into superior products that people imprisoned under EU authoritarianism, will crave.
Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised if these more innovative products don’t eventually find a conduit to European Appleophiles.
“The legislation still needs to be approved by the EU Parliament and Council later this year, but this appears to be a formality.”
Parliament is made up of elected representatives from member states, and in typical European fashion, they are just a formality.
Sounds like an antitrust lawsuit brewing. Such a requirement would only benefit Intel, making USB-C a de facto monopoly through coercion.
MDN needs to get off their kick that the IPhone is going portless.. it ain’t happening.. transferring data from a computer to iPhone or the reverse would take forever. Most respected businesses don’t use the iCloud so claiming use that will just make businesses use Android. The IPad Pro already uses the usb-c connection and that’s “business friendly” so what’s the big deal with the iphone using the universal standard? The answer.. nothing .. MDN is just the local apple fan boy thinking Apple is always in the right..
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Unless of course you are from the GOP, in that case you’re here to run up wasteful spending while actively preventing improvements to infrastructure, health care, education, law enforcement, etc.
For the 5 Donald fans on this site: you got from him a new record deficit, a corporate tax giveaway, and tough tweets full of lies. How was that great?
How does portless work if you need to charge on a plane train, from an external battery?
Simple: it doesn’t work. Hauling around your own portable Qi charger is bulkier, costlier, and less efficient than any conventional wired charger.
The idiots pushing wireless may have a profit motive but they clearly haven’t thought through practicality.
I for one look forward to the day when USB-C displaces Lightning and older ports everywhere.