A European directive requiring the harmonisation of chargers for electronic devices across the European Union came into effect for laptops on Tuesday. The new regulations, approved in 2022, have applied to many smaller devices like mobile phones, cameras and tablets since 2024.
The directive is intended to save consumers money by reducing the number of chargers they need to buy or replace, bring convenience by allowing all different devices to use the same charger – a UCB-C – regardless of brand while also reducing waste.
The new regulations also provide for the unbundling of new products and chargers at the point of sale but the packaging for any new device must indicate whether there is a charger included or not. Information is now also required to be provided with new chargers to inform consumers of their power consumption and charging speed capabilities.
The unbundling aspect alone, it is suggested, should prevent about 980 tonnes of waste currently caused by cables being discarded.
The entire package of measures is intended to save EU consumers an estimated €250 million annually.
The number of such devices purchased each year in the European Union is put at about 300 million.
A voluntary scheme to encourage compatibility had been run before 2022 but the commission said it moved to regulate at that stage because the reaction from manufacturers had been disappointing.
Laptops were not brought into the scope of the new rules because manufacturers had sought additional time to facilitate the redesign of products.
The commission has said it will publish a report at the end of this year on whether the new regulations should be extended to other cables such as those used for data transfer. The intention is to assess the overall impact of the changes implemented so far before making a recommendation on any new rules.