EU microUSB Charger Requirement Extended To Include Tablets

News Paul Briden 11:28, 14 Mar 2014

The EU has passed legislation requiring new tablets to charge via microUSB

New legislation within the EU means tablets are now required to use microUSB chargers.

A while back the European Union passed into law a requirement that all smartphones sold within its member states use microUSB chargers, but crucially, that legislation didn’t cover tablets. Happily, this has now changed, as the EU has expanded the statutory law to include tablet devices.

According to the report from ALDE Group, EU member states will have two years to enable the new law and device manufacturers will have another year on top of this to get their product portfolios in line, so don’t expect a change overnight.

However, for manufacturers that’s probably a much wider gap than is needed and we can imagine more tablets will appear using microUSB over the 2014-2015 period.

Estimated figures from the EU legislation predict the change could save consumers €300 million per year. The new law is also sure to sit well with recent environmental initiatives where manufacturers have stopped supplying microUSB chargers with every handset in a bid to reduce waste.

This is great news. It’s been a source of much frustration that we can actively see the benefits of universal microUSB use in smartphones and yet at the same time the very same manufacturers often choose to push out proprietary chargers for their tablet offerings, even with devices on the same operating system and using similar running hardware.

Apple has still stuck to its proprietary Lightning connector, although to comply with EU law has supplied EU iPhones with USB adaptors. You can probably expect this practice to extend to the iPad Air and iPad Mini now too.