It seems that in the modern day, we don’t have things that keep for very long, especially when it comes to electronics. Our computers and phones are built to be obsolete and broken within the first three years that we buy them. We’re supposed to throw away last year’s model to buy this year’s. In 2010 global E-waste generation was 33.8 million metric tons, in 2019 it was 53.6 million, and this upward trend hasn’t stopped. Last year the European Parliament passed a new law requiring that new electronics of certain types sold in the EU must use USB-C chargers. The real target of this legislation was Apple and its iPhone’s proprietary Lighting charger.
Apple’s smartphone irrevocably changed the world. The first four iPhones used the old 30-Pin Dock Connector, but later iPhones used Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector. Today, except for the iPhone, nearly all of Apple’s current catalog uses USB-C to charge, the sole exceptions being the Apple Watch and desktop Macs. This allowed Apple to have a near monopoly on chargers for the iPhone. Other lightning charger producers exist, but the quality pales in comparison, and the majority of iPhone users stick to Apple’s.
However, with this new requirement in the European market to have a USB-C charging port, Apple has designed the recently revealed iPhone 15 to no longer use the lightning charger. Proponents say this will likely reduce E-waste in the long term, as this measure minimizes the number of cables that EU citizens will need to buy and throw away substantially. However, in the short term, it is predicted that there will be a significant spike in E-waste as Europeans throw away all their old Lightning chargers. Just the same, these chargers will be thrown away at some point, doing it now just means that the spike will be smaller then it would be in five, 10, or 15 years.
Moreover, the fact that Apple caved to this legislation does set a precedent for the future of EU environmental legislation. If lawmakers can have an impact on megacompanies like Apple they’ll probably be more willing to pass tougher environmental regulations on products.
This law’s passage may also signal the increasing willingness of the EU to pass legal measures against the largest American technology corporations. The technology market is often described as an oligopoly, since several massive companies like Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google control an overwhelming share of the market. During the early parts of the 20th century, many trusts and monopolies were busted down to size. However, these companies haven’t seen any serious antitrust lawsuits, certainly none that would break them up the way that companies like Standard Oil were. This EU environmental law had really one target: Apple, and it could be a sign that more is on the way. Forcing these companies to give up market share to make way for smaller companies, and with them greater innovation, could be the goal of many lawmakers.
Regardless of whether future legislation is focused on the environment, trust-busting, or the combination of both, this initial law and Apple’s reaction does show that governments still have teeth and the willingness to take actions they perceive as yielding gains for the environment and for the average citizen.
