We knew it was likely, and now the European Parliament has confirmed it: the EU is set require a USB-C port for charging most electronic devices.
The European Parliament Internal Market Committee (IMCO) tweeted this morning that "We have reached a deal on the common charger!" As The Verge reports, the mandatory requirement for a USB-C port will extend to smartphones, tablets, ereaders, digital cameras, handheld video game consoles, and headphones.
The deal extends to unbundling the sale of chargers from the sale of devices, which means across the EU consumers will need to get used to purchasing them separately. And probably the best part of this deal for consumers is an agreement to harmonize on fast-charging technology, which means no more checking to see if your device is compatible with one standard or another.
Manufacturers have plenty of time to prepare for the USB-C requirement as it won't be mandatory until fall 2024 for wired charging. The biggest impact will of course be on Apple, which continues to rely on a proprietary Lightning port for charging the iPhone.
How Apple reacts to this decision is hard to predict due to how long the company has to react. Fall 2024 is when the iPhone 15 will be released, so it could (as predicted) end up being the first iPhone to ship with a USB-C port. However, the EU is making the port mandatory for wired charging, so Apple could decide to simply ship the iPhone 15 without a port and have it rely on wireless charging only. Would that be allowed under this new EU rule? The devil will be in the details.
One omission from the list of devices covered by this change is laptops, but they are only temporarily exempt. As part of a live stream this morning, the IMCO stated that laptops will join the list "in the future," but didn't state when that will be. I suspect most, if not all laptops will make the switch to USB-C charging ports by the time we get to 2024 regardless of the rules. And as the MacBooks revealed yesterday demonstrated, Apple may end up offering two wired charging methods across its range of laptops.