Joswiak said that the company will comply as it does with other laws. He declined to specify when the iPhone may get the charger to replace Lightning.
[...]
He said Apple and the EU had been at odds over chargers for a decade, recalling how European authorities once wanted Apple to adopt Micro-USB. He said that neither Lightning -- the current iPhone charging port -- nor the now-ubiquitous USB-C would have been invented if that switch had occurred.
I wonder if the EU law works somewhat in Apple’s favour here. Apple were clearly already on a journey to USB-C with the rest of their products. Although some would argue, the iPhone was destined to be port-less. However, this allows Apple to redirect any possible negativity towards the switch to USB-C to the EU.
I wrote about this proposal last September, and it's funny to see how I felt just over a year ago. Especially since my position on it has softened quite substantially. To be honest, I'm now starting to think that it might be a good idea.
When I list all the devices I use, Macs, ThinkPad, Nintendo Switch, iPad, Pixel 6, work phone (it's some Motorola Android phone), and iPhone 13, only one of them uses a port that's not USB-C. I didn't realise it until now, but the same applies for peripherals and accessories. The only non-USB-C (wired) accessory I use is my wired EarPods. And that's only because Apple removed the headphone jack and used Lightning on the iPhone 13.
So I think I'm quite looking forward to it actually. That might not neccesarily mean I'm going to buy the next iPhone, but it being USB-C is definitely a positive for me.
The European Commission is set to present a legislative proposal on Thursday to force manufacturers to use a common charger for electronic devices, according to a Commission official closely involved in the file.
The proposal will require all manufacturers to harmonize the charging points on devices — using a USB-C charging point — and to make their software protocol for fast charging interoperable between brands and devices.
The main target of the new legislation is U.S. tech giant Apple, which has pushed back against EU attempts to standardize chargers through binding requirements, arguing that it will hamper innovation.
This is such a fundamentally stupid proposal.
How can you enforce all phone manufactures to use the same charging port?
What happens when USB-C isn't good enough anymore?
What about the massive number of lightning cables that would be unusable by the current iPhone users? Does that waste not matter?
What if a manufacturer wants to only support wireless charging?
Single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks or cotton buds, will be banned in the EU under plans adopted on Wednesday.
These products, which make up over 70% of marine litter, will be banned from the EU market from 2021, under draft plans approved by Parliament.
MEPs added to this list of plastics banned from the EU market from 2021: products made of oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags or packaging and fast-food containers made of expanded polystyrene.