Apple must fight to keep the iPhone's Lightning port as the EU presses ahead on forcing standardized phone chargers

AP

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

• Apple faces a battle to keep the Lightning port on the iPhone as the EU pushes for a standardized phone charger that works across all smartphone brands and device types.
• European lawmakers want the EU's executive branch to push through stronger rules for a standard charging method for mobile devices by July.
• The idea is to reduce e-waste.
• Apple argues that the new rules would stifle innovation, which the EU rejects.
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Apple and the EU are on a collision course over phone chargers.

Apple risks having to alter the Lightning port on the iPhone, thanks to the EU's fresh attempts to push through rules forcing a standardized smartphone charger that works across all phone brands and device types.

In a resolution Thursday, the European Parliament voted 582 to 40 in favor of introducing a "common charger for mobile radio equipment."

The proposed legislation doesn't explicitly target Apple but while most recent smartphones feature a USB-C charging port, Apple has a proprietary connector called the Lightning port. Anyone who loses the charger for a newer iPhone must buy a compatible cable.

In the motion for the resolution, the European Parliament called on the European Commission (the EU's executive branch) to either adopt or introduce stronger rules requiring a single charging method for mobile devices by July. The EU has been trying to introduce a standardized charger for more than a decade.

The proposed legislation forms part of the EU's broader drive to reduce "e-waste" - the waste generated by redundant, non-recyclable electronic devices.

The EU's argument is that using different charging methods across devices drives up e-waste. It estimates that the total e-waste generated in 2016 was 12.3 million metric tonnes, equivalent to 16.6 kg on average per inhabitant.

Earlier in January, Apple hit out at the EU's efforts to introduce a standardized charging method.

The tech giant argued that customers who use the "hundreds of millions of [its] active devices and accessories" would be "greatly inconvenienced."

Apple also argued that "regulation that forces conformity across the type of connector stifles innovation," and claimed that the introduction of a universal charging method would generate waste of its own.

The European Parliament appeared to reject Apple's anti-innovation claim, however. In the motion for Thursday's resolution, it claimed the "[European] Commission, without hampering innovation, should ensure that the legislative framework for a common charger will be scrutinized regularly."

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