The 27 EU countries and MEPs agreed on Tuesday to impose in the Union a universal charger for smartphones, tablets, consoles and digital cameras by autumn 2024, then in a second phase for laptops, announced the European Parliament.
This regulation, which will impose a USB-C port on all small and medium-sized electronic devices, aims to limit waste harmful to the environment and to defend the rights of consumers, forced to accumulate incompatible chargers for their different devices.
The American giant Apple, renowned for its Lightning charging technology and having long opposed the universal charger, has converted to USB-C for these most recent iPads.
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Considering that 500 million chargers for portable devices are shipped each year in Europe and that they generate between 11,000 and 13,000 tonnes of electronic waste, a single charger for mobile phones and other small or medium-sized electronic devices would benefit everyone
,” said the European Parliament in a report.
Subsequently, Europe also plans to tackle wireless chargers.
The Union wants to ensure that this technology is also universal, in order to prevent the problem from being simply transferred to a new technology.