After a decade of voluntary agreements that never quite stuck, the European Union did what industry would not: it legislated the charger. Directive 2022/2380, the 'common charger' law, has required most portable electronics sold in the EU to charge via USB-C since late December 2024, and as of April 2026 laptops — the last and most power-hungry category — are covered too.

The practical effect was visible immediately. Apple, the last major holdout with its Lightning connector, moved the iPhone to USB-C ahead of the deadline rather than fork its product line for one market. That single decision, more than any regulatory text, is why the cable in a hotel room in Chicago now matches the law passed in Brussels.

Why it matters

The EU estimates the directive cuts thousands of tonnes of electronic waste annually and saves consumers roughly 250 million euros a year in unneeded charger purchases — the mandate also decouples charger sales from device sales, so a new phone need not come with a new brick. For anyone who has ever owned five incompatible chargers for five devices, the consumer benefit needs no econometric support.

The deeper significance is regulatory: the charger directive is a proof case for the 'Brussels effect' in hardware — a single-jurisdiction rule that becomes a de facto global standard because fragmenting a product line costs more than complying. The same logic now underlies the EU's approach to AI documentation and repairability rules.

How it works

The directive covers a defined list of device categories: phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, handheld game consoles, portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, earbuds and laptops. Devices supporting fast charging must implement USB Power Delivery, the USB-IF's open standard for negotiating voltage and current — this is the quieter half of the law, because it attacks the proprietary fast-charge protocols that had fragmented even among USB-C devices.

USB Power Delivery now scales to 240 watts with the Extended Power Range revision, which is what makes covering laptops feasible: a single standard cable-and-brick combination can charge everything from earbuds to a gaming laptop, with the devices negotiating the right level between themselves.

Evidence

The directive text is published in the Official Journal as Directive (EU) 2022/2380, amending the Radio Equipment Directive. The USB Implementers Forum publishes the USB-C connector specification and the USB Power Delivery specification, including the 240W Extended Power Range. The European Commission's own communications quantify the expected e-waste and consumer-spending effects and confirm the two-phase application dates.

The competing read

The standard critique is that mandating a connector freezes it — had such a law passed in 2009, micro-USB would be the legal port today. Apple made this argument formally during the legislative process. The directive's answer is a mechanism for the Commission to update standards by delegated act, though skeptics note regulatory update cycles have never matched engineering ones. The law also says nothing about the wireless-charging transition, which could eventually make the mandated port vestigial — at which point the question becomes whether the EU mandates Qi as well.

What happens next

Watch the Commission's first review of the directive's scope, early market-surveillance enforcement against non-compliant imports, and the ongoing harmonization of fast-charging behavior — proprietary high-wattage protocols that bypass USB PD are the next friction point. Beyond Europe, India has adopted a similar USB-C requirement and other jurisdictions are studying it, extending the standard's reach further than the directive's text ever could.