EU to require single charger for all electronic devices
European Parliament and EU member states agree to make single charger mandatory for all portable electronics sold in the European Union as of 2024.
Leyla Cheamil, 08.06.2022, 13:50
All electronic devices in the EU, regardless of their manufacturer, will from the autumn of 2024 be required to use a single type of cable, namely USB-C. The rule will apply to mobile phones, tablets, cameras and video game consoles. Laptops will have to meet the same requirement, but in their case the transition is longer, of almost three and a half years. The rule also applies to e-readers, earbuds and other technologies, which will have an effect on producers of electronic devices. According to a European Commission survey from 2019, half of the chargers that came with the mobile phones sold in 2018 used a USB Micro-B type connector, 29% a USB-C type connector and 21% a Lightning connector.
The European Commission says the use of a common charger in the European Union will bring many benefits, reducing hassle for EU consumers and saving them money, not to mention help cut back on electronic waste. Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market, said the agreement will translate into savings of around 250 million euros for consumers:
“So we leave them two years, which is fine, more than enough, but of course, we encourage anybody to do it before, because these will be the rules. The consumer will push, will want to buy the product already applying these rules. We are the regulator, were not the companies, but we invite the companies to take good benefit of what we did. So, as a conclusion let me also remind you we are currently working on equal design and energy labelling measures to prevent premature obsolescence of smart phone and tablets, which is also very important. Again, some companies, maybe the same, by the way, would love us to change our smart phone every three years. We understand that, we understand their point of view but maybe its not the point of view of the consumer.”
The idea to adopt a common charger for smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices was first launched by the European Commission back in 2009, but it was met with resistance from the industry, although the number of different chargers has been brought down significantly in the last ten years, from around 30, to 3 at the moment. Also, for the last ten years, the European Commission has made efforts to reduce and eventually entirely removing roaming surcharges, as of 15th June 2017. EU citizens travelling within the bloc pay no extra charge on their calls, text messages and data, a rule in place until 30th June 2022. (CM)
