Marget Verstager, the world’s most powerful tech regulator, has a new goal. Once it has already measure swords with the Russian energy giant Gazprom in the anti-monopoly case and imposed a record fine on Google, the Danish European Commissioner is now studying the possibility of creating a universal charger for mobile phones for the European Union.
In response to EU pressure, 14 major technological companies such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Nokia signed a voluntary Memorandum of Understanding in 2009, agreeing to harmonise chargers for their new smartphone models. As most initiatives of this kind, this has not led to anything and the Memorandum of Understanding expired in 2012.
Now, however, Verstager believes that the issue must not only be brought on the daily agenda, but also be brought to a solution – even if it includes the creation of a new technological standard.
The European Commission insists on the creation of a universal charger for almost a decade, citing as main factor for this, problems like more than 500,000 tones of electronic waste per year from old chargers, as well as inconvenience for consumers when travelling and changing the devices used.
Commissioner Verstager, who is responsible for competition in the Juncker Team, is not satisfied with the status quo.
“Given the unsatisfactory progress of this so-called voluntary approach, the Commission will soon launch an impact assessment study to analyze the costs and benefits of various other options,” Westager said.
The main “other” option is the introduction of a universal mobile charger for the single European market.
If the Commission considers that there is a prospect for such a solution, the serious task of discovering it falls on Elżbieta Bieńkowska as European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Convincing at least a dozen large and medium-sized technological producers to set a common standard in the design of their large smartphones and tablets lines will certainly not be an easy task.
