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The European Parliament (EP) just voted 582 to 40 to require one standard for chargers for all mobile phones. The EP cited the goals of reducing both frustration and electronic waste. The next step would be for the European Commission to draft a law and vote on it in July. Currently most of the industry uses micro-USB and is slowly adopting USB-C, however there are also phones using other connectors.
From the European Parliament resolution on a common charger for mobile radio equipment (2019/2983(RSP)):
1. Strongly stresses that there is an urgent need for EU regulatory action to reduce electronic waste, empower consumers to make sustainable choices, and allow them to fully participate in an efficient and well-functioning internal market;
2. Calls on the Commission to present and publish without further delay the results of the impact assessment on the introduction of a common charger for mobile telephones and other compatible devices with a view to proposing mandatory provisions;
3. Emphasises the need for a standard for a common charger for mobile radio equipment to be adopted as a matter of urgency in order to avoid further internal market fragmentation;
4. Calls, therefore, on the Commission to take action to introduce the common charger without any further delay by adopting the delegated act supplementing Directive 2014/53/EU on radio equipment defining a standard for a common charger for mobile phones and other small and medium-sized radio equipment by July 2020, or, if necessary, by adopting a legislative measure by July 2020 at the latest;
Earlier on SN:
The Dream Of A Common Charger Is Alive, Despite Apple's Complaining (2020)
European MEPs Back Single Charger Standard (2014)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @02:47PM (1 child)
Do you have a problem with AC sockets being standardized too? Perhaps you prefer to have Apple sockets for your Apple equipment, Sony sockets for Sony euqipment, Philips sockers for Philips equipment, and so on, each with their own pin arrangement, voltage and frequency?
The EU is not telling people what chargers they can have, it tells manufacturers what chargers to be compatible with. To some extent it has been standardized in 2009 already, when 14 phone manufacturers voluntarily agreed to use microUSB, after the EU put pressure on them. That didn't cause any problem for consumers, it made life easier because you don't have to worry about which charger you need for which phone or tablet. I remember buying a new charger specific to some phone when I lived part of the time in my own appartment and part of the time in my partner's. When that phone died I had two utterly useless chargers because they didn't fit anything else and new phones used microUSB. Nowadays you just grab one of the microUSB charger almost everyone has lying around has and use that, or connect the phone to a computer. That's an improvement.
Not all manufacturers joined that agreement in 2009, and the ones who did failed to prolong it when it expired in 2012. Apparently the EU got fed up with them and decided to make the decision they can't make themselves for them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 04 2020, @06:12PM
Alternately, that's already standardization enough for chargers.