Legislators in the European Union have selected one charging port to rule them all. And that charging port is USB-C.
On Tuesday, EU officials ruled that any mobile electronic devices sold within the EU must come with a USB-C charging port by the fall of 2024. The new mandate applies to rechargeable mobile devices like phones, tablets, laptops, handheld game consoles, headphones, and cameras. This move to standardize charging ports was executed as a way to limit e-waste—consumers will be able to buy devices without a charger in the box if they so choose—but also to make it easier for people to wrangle the energy needs of their many devices.
“This is a bit of a victory for common sense,” says Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “Consumers are fed up with having lots of different chargers, lots of different ports.”
Standardization around USB-C as the tech industry’s main…
