Apple is gearing up to fight the EU over the lightning connector

Note: this story has been rewritten because a previous version contained substantially incorrect analysis. Please see the correction note below. We regret the error. Since 2009, the European Commission has been trying to convince tech companies to adopt a single charging method for our gadgets, primarily smartphones, in a quest to reduce the waste that comes when every new gadget you buy includes yet another AC adapter in the box.

Now, Apple’s Lightning connector may be at risk. Back at the beginning of the decade, the commission was mostly successful in driving the voluntary adoption of the Micro-USB charging port, which became the standard on every non-Apple smartphone until the newer, more capable USB-C came along. That reduced the number of different cables and chargers a household needed to top up their devices. But in the view of Maroš Šefčovič, a vice president of the European Commission who is now proposing further regulation, voluntary agreements haven’t been enough.

In a statement before the European Parliament on January 13th, Šefčovič argued that voluntary agreements from the industry weren’t doing enough. Apple, Google, Lenovo, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony all voluntarily agreed in 2018 to standardize on some form of USB-C charging by 2021, but allowed for things like Lightning to USB-C cables and adapters instead of changing the port on the phone itself. Šefčovič mentions that one of the outcomes might be to eliminate proprietary connectors (like Apple’s Lightning port, though he didn’t mention it by name). And he suggests that the EU might force manufacturers to stop shipping chargers with each new phone, which could be frustrating unless manufacturers know their customers would already have the right charger and cable for whatever smartphone they buy waiting for them at home.

Apple’s not particularly happy about the threat of regulation, of course, and argues that we might not have shifted from Micro-USB to the more durable, versatile, and bidirectional Lightning and USB-C to begin with if they’d been forced to adopt a single standard back in 2009. Here’s the full statement the company issued Thursday, mirroring a very similar one Apple issued a year ago: Apple stands for innovation and deeply cares about the customer experience. We believe regulation that forces conformity across the type of connector built into all smartphones stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, and would harm consumers in Europe and the economy as a whole. More than 1 billion Apple devices have shipped using a Lightning connector in addition to an entire ecosystem of accessory and device manufacturers who use Lightning to serve our collective customers.