The official deadline for new phones sold in the European Union, including future iPhones, to use USB Type-C for wired charging has been announced: December 28, 2024. The new EU USB-C law has been officially released. We now know that the requirements will officially take effect in 20 days, and individual EU member states will have a maximum of 24 months to implement them into their national laws.

All this more or less corresponds to previous estimates of politicians, but until now the exact date remained unclear, given the number of stages that each EU law has to pass. When lawmakers first agreed on the law in June, it was announced that the law would apply from “autumn 2024,” but a press release in October said the rules would go into effect “by the end of 2024.”

In addition to phones, the law also covers devices such as tablets, digital cameras, headsets and portable game consoles. Laptops will also be covered eventually, but not before April 2026.

Note that the new requirements only apply to devices that offer wired charging. In other words, if Apple transfers the iPhone to the wireless charging method only, it will not have to use USB-C instead of Lightning.

However, Apple has already confirmed that it will comply with the new rules. If Apple decides to implement USB-C instead of Lightning, that should happen with the launch of new iPhones in 2025.