The European Union on Thursday announced plans to impose a universal charger for smartphones, setting up a clash with Apple and its widely used iPhone connector cable.
The European Commission believes cutting back on electronic waste requires a standard cable for all devices, a claim with which Apple disagrees with.
Indeed, the global smartphone market is about to witness a massive impact if this policy is implemented.
“European consumers have been frustrated long enough about incompatible chargers piling up in their drawers,” said EU executive vice president Margrethe Vestager in a statement.
“We gave industry plenty of time to come up with their own solutions, now time is ripe for legislative action for a common charger,” she said. The European Union has a population of about 450 million people.
The three options for consumers right now are Lightning ones for Apple handsets, micro-USB ones widely used on most other mobile phones, and USB-C ones that are increasingly being used.
The EU said the current situation, just as it was prior to 2009 when there was charger garbages remained “inconvenient” and that European consumers spent approximately 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) annually on standalone chargers that do not come with their electronic devices.
Apple, which already uses USB-C connectors on some of its iPads and laptop computers, insists legislation forcing a universal charger for all mobiles in the European Union is unwarranted.
“We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world,” Apple said.
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