EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger and ship phones without one in the box

The European Commission is set to present a legislative proposal today for all phones, tablets, and headphones sold in the European Union to have a common charging port. This comes after the European Parliament had voted in favor of Right to Repair, an initiative that would benefit consumers as well as the Union’s plan to force OEMs to allow users to uninstall bloatware from their devices. The news isn’t really new though since EU lawmakers have been attempting to generalize the charger used to charge consumer electronic gadgets for over a decade now.

As reported by Reuters, the EU is in favor of having a single charger for all popular gadgets in order to cut down on the environmental impact as well as make it easy for consumers to carry just a single charger for all their gadgets instead of using different proprietary connectors. While there’s no explicit mention of what the proposed common port is, it’s likely to be USB-C since it’s the most commonly used charging port across devices especially on the Android side of things. The proposal also suggests not shipping a charger in the box, a move that some brands have already implemented citing benefits to the environment (while also serving their own economic interests).

Most Android devices use a USB-C port for charging and accessory manufacturers have also switched to USB-C for their headphones, battery packs, etc. In fact, a lot of new laptops also charge via USB-C. Given that most Android devices already use a common port, this proposal is going to affect one brand the most — Apple. The iPhone, the entry-level iPad, and the AirPods, all use Apple’s proprietary lightning port to charge. Apple’s own gadgets like the more premium iPads and MacBooks use USB-C, so there’s no logical reason why the iPhone still uses lightning.

Given that lightning is Apple’s proprietary port, it generates a good amount of revenue for the company via its accessory certification program — Made for iPhone (MFI). Apple said that rules forcing connectors to conform to one type could deter innovation, create a mountain of electronic waste and irk consumers. It’s quite the irony though since a single charger would make things more convenient for users.

According to a commission study in 2019, almost 50% of phones sold in 2018 had a micro-USB port with 29% of devices using USB-C and 21% using lightning. However, over the past couple of years, micro-USB has been phased out of most devices except for some low-end, entry-level devices; so the percentage of phones with a USB-C port would’ve certainly increased. It would be interesting to see the outcome of this proposal — if there’s something that can get Apple to switch to USB-C on the iPhone, it’s got to be this.

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