Mobile phones and numerous other electronic devices must have a standard charging socket in the EU from mid-2024. Negotiators from the EU states and the European Parliament agreed on USB-C as the standard charging socket, as the head of the negotiations, Anna Cavazzini (Greens), said on Tuesday.
In the future, the USB-C standard will be the specification for all charging cables in the European Union. Negotiators from the EU states and the European Parliament agreed on a uniform guideline for electronic devices in the EU on Tuesday. It is still unclear which devices, in addition to mobile phones, should be specifically affected. The agreement means that standardized charging cables will become a reality in the EU in mid-2024.
Uniform mobile phone charging cables in the EU: agreement on the USB-C standard
In addition to the question of which devices should be covered by the new regulation, there are other points of contention between Parliament and EU countries. For example, there is still a struggle about which exact requirements should apply in the future for the separate sale of devices and cables and whether a standard for wireless charging should also be agreed.
Legal requirements for charging cables – more precisely charging sockets – have been the subject of debate for a long time. More than ten years ago, the commission brought the charging cable issue up for the first time. 14 manufacturers – including Apple – agreed in a self-commitment to a uniform standard for mobile phone power supplies. When it comes to the sockets in smartphones and tablet computers, three of what used to be several dozen types remain: USB-C, Apple’s Lightning connector and micro-USB. Criticism of the standardization arose in advance, especially from Apple with its own Lightning standard.
Thousands of tons of electronic waste could be saved in this way
According to the EU Commission, the regulation could save almost 1000 tons of electronic waste. Currently, an estimated 11,000 tons of electronic waste is generated annually from discarded and unused chargers. However, critics fear that the EU approach could come to nothing, since old chargers can no longer be used and USB-C has become the standard for electronic devices more and more in the past.
