NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe EU promises to impose a single charger by autumn 2024 (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
BATTERIES – The 27 EU countries and MEPs have (finally) arrived safely. After nearly 13 years of discussion, the European Parliament announced on Tuesday, June 7 that “consumers will no longer need a different device and charging cable each time they buy a new device, and will be able to use a single charger for all their portable electronic devices. small and medium size”. This to the chagrin ofApple opposed.
By fall 2024, mobile phones, tablets, e-readersearphones and headphones, digital cameras, portable video game consoles and portable speakers, if they are rechargeable via a wired cable, “will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port, regardless of their manufacturer”, specifies t -he.
Longer compliance time for computers
Laptops will be subject to the same requirement of a single charger “within 40 months of the entry into force of the text”, i.e. by 2026 (the text to be published in the Official Journal of the EU after the summer, after formal approval by the Council and the European Parliament).
The regulations also provide for the charging speed to be harmonized for devices authorizing fast charging, to prevent it from being restricted when used with a device of a different brand.
By making it possible to decouple the sale of electronic devices and chargers, the text could allow European consumers ―who spend around 2.4 billion euros per year on purchases of chargers alone― to save at least 250 million euros annually, according to the European Commission.
From the same source, waste from unused magazines, estimated at 11,000 tonnes per year, could be reduced by almost 1,000 tonnes. This project had been launched as early as 2009 by the Commission, but had so far come up against strong reluctance from the industry, although the number of types of existing chargers had been greatly reduced over the years.
From around thirty in 2009, they have gone to three: the Micro USB connector which has long been fitted to the majority of telephones, USB-C, a more recent connection, and the Lightning used by Apple.
The Californian group, which claims that its Lightning charging technology equips more than a billion devices worldwide, had expressed its fierce opposition to the European text, believing that it would “stifle innovation”.
Consumer associations, while welcoming the EU project, had for their part regretted that it does not concern wireless charging systems, which are in full swing.
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