The European Commission offers one charger for smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones or portable speakers. Brussels, under pressure from the MEPs, presented legislative proposals on this matter.
For the rules to take effect, they must be approved by the Member States and the European Parliament, and then manufacturers will have time to adapt. The entire procedure can take three to four years.
At the initiative of the Commission over 10 years ago, manufacturers of cell phones and mobile electronic devices voluntarily tried to standardize chargers. There are currently more than 30 chargers of three types on the market.
The Commission has now decided to replace the voluntary approach with regulations that will force all manufacturers to comply. – There was a lot of progress, but we felt that we must put an end to these differences. In this way, we increase the convenience for consumers and significantly reduce the amount of e-waste, ”said Commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton. The Commission estimates that standardizing chargers will reduce e-waste by nearly a thousand tons per year.
In recent years, most manufacturers have started offering USB charging, but the American giant Apple, which has chargers with its own tips, has broken those agreements. According to the Commission, in a few years, USB-C should become the standard port for all smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and game consoles. In addition, the Commission proposed to separate the sale of chargers from the sale of electronic devices, regardless of the device brand.