Smartphone manufacturers will need to decide on a single standard battery charger for mobile devices, according to a provisional European law. The European Parliament has created an outline agreement for a single charger that its members will vote upon in March, which could potentially lead to the law being implemented as early as 2017.
The draft radio equipment rules hope to minimize cost and waste from supplying multiple chargers with differing connections, according to a press release for the agreement between Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Reuters reports that the agreement also introduces tougher market supervision and measures to ensure certain products are registered before being sold to consumers.
It is expected that the European Parliament will agree to the law in March, which will give European Union Member States two years to apply the rules into national law, with manufacturers given an extra year to comply.
This is not the first time European lawmakers have looked at mobile phone chargers. In late 2010, the EU formally established the micro USB charging standard, asking for manufacturers to use a micro USB connection to supply power to a device. The standard was not mandatory, but since that time, a large proportion of devices have elected to use the connection.
