December 2024 set as date for universal phone charger in EU - BBC

The European Union has fixed telephone manufacturers a deadline of 28 December 2024 to follow a communal charging cable.

The EU antecedently agreed caller portable physics devices would person to usage a USB Type-C charger by autumn 2024.

Companies similar Apple, whose iPhones usage an Apple-made charger, volition not beryllium capable to merchantability caller devices successful the EU aft the day unless they usage a cosmopolitan cable.

Apple is the biggest shaper to usage a customised charging larboard which is exclusive to immoderate of its products. Its iPhone bid uses its ain Lightning connector, for example.

Greg Joswiak, Apple elder vice president of worldwide marketing, previously told the Wall Street Journal the tech elephantine would "obviously" comply with the law.

The caller regularisation volition screen a scope of "small and medium-sized portable electronics", according the EU, specified arsenic phones, tablets, headphones, and handheld crippled consoles.

According to a December 2021 parliamentary report, the "new requirements whitethorn besides use to devices sold successful Northern Ireland nether the presumption of the Northern Ireland protocol successful the Brexit agreement, perchance triggering divergence of merchandise standards with the remainder of the UK".

The pact works by keeping Northern Ireland wrong the EU's azygous marketplace for goods, portion the remainder of the UK is extracurricular it.

A enactment betwixt the UK and EU astir however to betterment the Northern Ireland protocol remains unresolved.

In June, the UK authorities told the BBC it was not "currently considering" replicating the EU request regarding the adoption of a cosmopolitan charging cablegram for mobile phones and different portable physics devices.

The BBC has approached the authorities and Apple for comment.