Every now and then, a Euro-EU scandal whizzes through the Czech basin, which Western Europe is not as good at picking up as the alert Czech reader. For example, the god-awful fuss that the EU has banned various types and models of chargers and allowed one single one, USB-C, keeps coming back in cycles. It’s a similar kerfuffle to the one was with the spreadable butter that the EU banned for us (except not at all) How could such a thing happen, why don’t we have the right to use dozens of charger and connector models like we did at the turn of the millennium - and how do the poor companies come to that? Let’s get the facts straight.
I don’t know if you remember a time when all mobile phones had different chargers, often within the same company. Then came an era when they switched en masse to mini-USB, then micro-USB, and now USB-C containers, with the exception of Apple, which has its Lightning port and which only started fully transitioning to USB-C in 2024.
But few remember that the initiator of this change was the European Union, which in 2009 began requiring manufacturers to switch to USB cables in chargers whose natural termination was micro-USB instead of the existing round and other proprietary terminations. Except, of course, for Apple, which was uncomfortable with micro-USB because it could only be inserted in one direction and had low charging currents. The EU agreement with industry at the time achieved two very important things:
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micro-USB became the standard charging connector, and the standardiser quickly added support for higher charging currents, so that more power-hungry devices could be accommodated.
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the charger was “required” to include a USB-A connector, so different chargers just needed a different cable. This was a change you probably don’t remember, but previously the chargers had the cable hardwired in, and when the device’s connector changed, you threw away the charger and the cable. Nowadays you just change the cable.
So it’s not true that the industry got anything by self-regulation, however much it was pushed and favoured by the EU. Change came only with EU pressure, and the fragmentation suited the then big manufacturers, especially of mobile phones, as it generated additional profits from sales and renewal of accessories and service. In fact, unification accelerated the benefits for users and reduced e-waste.
Consequently, the EU is pushing for all manufacturers to converge on a standard for charging and to start using only the USB-C connector for a large part of consumer electronics. There is a great deal of logic to this. The previous step has eliminated cable confusion, the need to have various chargers, increased device connectivity, and for the user this is a positive. Critics had already warned that this would reduce the innovation of manufacturers, but this was not borne out, as the need to have a standard USB on the charger did not prove to be a problem, nor a limitation on technical development. USB-C is capable of sufficient development in both main parameters, i.e. charging current and transfer rate, within its physical capabilities.
The EU recalls that manufacturers have had sufficient time to come up with a design and that the USB-C standard fully meets both power and data transfer needs. So the law was submitted to the European Parliament and Council for approval, and the EP approved the directive in October 2022, with an effective date of December 28, 2022 (And here’s the source). Manufacturers have until the end of 2024 to implement the USB-C port in their devices. For laptops, that deadline is extended to April 2026. By that time, most manufacturers already supported USB-C and there was effectively no standard other than Lightning used by Apple.
And what was the deal with Apple? The same as everywhere else. Apple had already had one experience with the transition - that’s when its wide thirty-pin connector replaced the Lightning connector in the iPhone 5 in 2012, allowing customers to throw away most of their previously purchased accessories. iPhone was still compatible with the first iPods via the thirty-pin connector, but Apple itself acknowledged that the connector was no longer practical.
Apple had been preparing for the transition to USB-C for a long time. The first iPad with a USB-C connector was the 3rd-generation iPad Pro, introduced in October 2018, and in October 2023 Apple began shipping a USB-C-equipped iPhone 15. The reason was actually simple. Firstly, USB-C was the logical choice for the iPad Pro series, allowing for a variety of peripherals that users wanted to connect and for which the Pro series had support. And besides, it was to be expected that iPad Pro users would have fewer legacy peripherals and be happy with the standard connector. And so it happened, Apple gradually brought USB-C to other lines without encountering any major dissatisfaction. In 2023, it discontinued the use of the Lightning connector in new iPhones, the 14 model series being the last to use it. After five years, he had USB-C support fully debugged in the phone and in the ecosystem, and no user backlash was expected. Nor did it come, certainly the bigger storm was the decision to dump the audio connector in 2016 and the associated move to wireless accessories including wireless charging.
Is this a case of Euro-EU arbitrariness?
Should the EU even interfere in something like this? Well, that will depend on your political preferences. Libertarians will spit in disgust, but the truth is that compared to the previous mess of more than three dozen different types of chargers, the current state of affairs is a significant improvement for users. So from a practical standpoint, it was a benefit. Both for the sake of e-waste and for smaller electronics manufacturers who can rely on an accepted standard and the basic issue of powering the device being resolved. The big manufacturers used to make various patent protected rechargeable connectors that were difficult and expensive to service and not easy to do anything for.
My own view is that the EU has sensibly contributed to a market consensus in this case, which ultimately benefits everyone: consumers, manufacturers and nature. That is the role of a sensible government. Laissez-faire supporters will certainly see it differently, but I consider this approach to be outdated.
Indeed, the US could have been a somewhat deterrent example. There, similar regulation was adopted in 2023 by California, but only effective for California - effective for cell phones, laptops and other devices starting in 2026. A year earlier, a group of senators called for a federal law, but no such federal law has yet been passed, so it is possible that different US states will have different regulation, or will (very likely) drop it, on the grounds that the strength of the EU and California is sufficient to keep manufacturers from making any bric-a-brac.
And China, where everything is made anyway? In April 2022, China’s National Bureau of Standards released a proposal to standardize smartphone charging interfaces, but it didn’t mention a specific connector, just laid out the prerequisites. Manufacturers understand that the proposal is non-binding and, as is customary in China, they all voluntarily meet it by using USB-C because only USB-C meets all the prerequisites - performance and standardization.
And that’s the end of it. The standardization has been done, the manufacturers are quite happy, slightly grumbling Apple, which will bring it up sometime when the EU will blame it again for how accommodating it is. Only in the Czech right-wing scene has this caused outrage… (and the caravan is moving on)
