advertisement
Have you ever borrowed a friend’s charger only to find it is not compatible with your phone? Or wondered what to do with the pile of cables you’ve accumulated from every device you’ve ever bought?
Unbundling will also be mandatory: chargers will no longer come with new phones, but will be purchased separately, if needed, when you buy a new phone.
The European Commission first announced it was discussing the need for a common charger with the industry in 2009, so many manufacturers have already aligned their production with the new rule.
A common charger should be less wasteful and cheaper, as well as making consumers’ lives easier – what could possibly be wrong with that? According to Apple, a lot.
The tech company has criticised the plan to standardise, arguing the regulation may hinder future innovation. But the new rules mean it has been forced to add USB-C charging capabilities to its next generation of phones anyway.
This shows the power of the EU to affect the development of markets and industries beyond its borders.
Imagine if regulators had forced the installation of a CD player on laptops or even a headphone jack on mobile phones, for example.
A study commissioned by Apple estimates the potential loss of value to consumers from blocking innovation in this area is to be in the billions.
Finding a common standard is often in the interest of manufacturers. Along with helping to reduce costs, it offers the ability to compete on a level playing field.
The prospect of a future common standard also encourages competition to provide the resulting product. This often results in manufacturers cooperating without government interventions, both at the national and international levels.
Indeed, USB is already a collaborative venture founded by major tech players such as Microsoft, HP and even Apple.
Economists call this a “pesky little brother” situation. Apple is by far the largest technology company in the world. While everyone would like their product to be compatible with Apple, it wants exclusivity.
Thus, the main risk of the new regulation may not be to hinder innovation in general, but to block new exclusive Apple designs.
As such, the EU has chosen the collective gain of a common standard versus the benefit some consumers may derive from the exclusivity of Apple products.
Other regulators might care more about not hurting Apple’s profits, but the EU seems to believe that this point is irrelevant to the welfare of European citizens.
On the other hand, the EU’s decision to standardise chargers is likely to have global implications. Once tech manufacturers switch to offer the common charger for European customers, it could be costly to produce a different technology for other parts of the world.
Once a product is compliant with EU regulations, firms often choose not to make a different version for the rest of the world.
Take GDPR as an example. Since 2016, global websites have modified user experience to abide by the European data protection law.
Companies such as Facebook and Google have adapted their business models to suit the new standards stemming from the EU Digital Market Act, drastically reducing the ways they can make money from consumer data.
Companies are not obliged to apply EU law globally, they often simply find it easier to do so.
Known as the “Brussels effect,” this means lawmakers representing Europe’s 400 million people often end up deciding the standards for the rest of the world.
While US lawmakers think this cost is higher than the benefits, their preference has become largely irrelevant.
The biggest technological companies are based in the US but their regulation has been delegated to the EU in practice, simply because its regulators acted first.
In the case of the common charger, the direct risk to innovation is probably minimal and consumers should be fairly happy with the new rules.
The underlying issue is actually democratic: standards are often set by the regulators that act first. Others must then watch markets develop from the sidelines.
(This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: undefined