The EU legislature passed a resolution of 582 to 40 votes. It aims to promote the European Commission to take action to unified charger for smartphones.
Reuters reports that the European Commission is responsible for the drafting of relevant European laws and acts as the law enforcement department. For more than a decade, the agency has been working to unify smartphone chargers.
The resolution pointed out that spontaneous agreements between some technology companies have significantly reduced the types of chargers in circulation. But there is still a lack of common standards in the industry. Therefore, consumers face different types of chargers in the market. Sometimes they even need to purchase new chargers for each device separately. Wireless charging may be a solution. But the legislature urges the European Commission to pay attention to fragmentation and to ensure that eventually adopted standards are compatible with multiple devices.
Also Read: ZMI Purple Rice 10000mAh Wireless Charger Now Supports Lightning Interface
The core of the resolution is to reduce the amount of e-waste. Therefore in 2016, Europe produced 12.3 million tons of e-waste. It is equivalent to an average of 16.6 kg per inhabitant. The legislature said that using the unified charger for all electronic devices could reduce the amount of electronic waste.
Unified charger and charging cable standards will have a huge impact on companies using proprietary technology. Apple has a huge number of users. So these devices rely heavily on the Lightning charging agreement. So this EU resolution will severely affect Apple. During its earnings call this week, Apple said that it has more than 1.5 billion active devices worldwide. Last week, Apple Corps objected to the European Union’s initiative, saying that the unified charger will “stifle innovation”. It allows existing iOS device users to give up Lightning and use USB-C, which will generate more electronics. This is particularly ironic.