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Fate of Apple’s Lightning port to be decided in the EU today

The European Commission wants one common charger for all and if it decides that manufacturers must all use one type of charging port, the days of Apple’s Lightning port could be numbered.

The fate of Apple’s proprietary port will be decided on Thursday when the European Commission presents a legislative proposal for a common charger according to a report from Reuters. This proposal could impact smartphones, tablets and headphones especially for Apple.

Why does the Commission want a common charger? Quite simply, to reduce the amount of ewaste.

However, it’s not just charging ports the Commission wants to change as it also wants to unbundle chargers from smartphone sales, something we’ve already seen from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

While the Commission wants to address the problem of ewaste, it does recognise that there is no perfect solution here and there will need to be trade-offs. One of those, according to an impact study conducted in June, is letting manufacturers voluntarily opt to either implement a common connector or an interoperable power supply. Both options can be selected but until the proposal is submitted we’re flying in the dark.

Given Apple’s recent release of the iPhone 13 series which still makes use of a Lightning port, it seems Apple isn’t expecting the Commission to outlaw its connector but of course nobody will know until the proposal is officially submitted.

Should Apple be forced to change its connector we suspect the Commission will give manufacturers some time to adopt its rules rather than forcing compliance immediately which could financially ruin some manufacturers.

We wait in anticipation for the European Commission’s proposal.

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