Nineteen countries, billions of euros spent every year on chargers destined to fill drawers, and a jungle of connectors — mini-USB, micro-USB, Lightning, MagSafe, barrel jacks of every diameter — built specifically to keep consumers chained to a proprietary ecosystem. From April 28, 2026, laptops sold in the European Union will also have to support charging via USB-C. This is certainly not a surprise, given that the date was written into the legislation from the beginning.
The norm: what it is and where it comes from
The reference is Directive (EU) 2022/2380, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 7 December 2022 and approved by the Council of the EU in October of the same year. The text establishes that Member States will have to apply the provisions from 28 April 2026 for portable computers, i.e. the category referred to in Annex Ia, Part I, point 1.13 of the Directive. The directive had already been granted a rather long adaptation period, two years for smartphones and portable devices, over three for laptops, considering the greater technical complexity linked to high-power charging.
There first phase started on 28 December 2024: From that date, the USB-C requirement was already in force for smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, earphones, video game consoles, portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice and GPS navigators. Laptops are therefore the last piece of the puzzle.
The obligations
The standard imposes three very specific technical requirements on producers:
Because the charger will disappear from the box
The third point is the one that will have the most visible impact on the shelf. The directive does not require removing the charger from the packagingand – it is worth clarifying – However, it forces manufacturers to offer at least one version of the product without a power supply.
Industrial logic will probably do the rest. Maintaining two versions of the same product means double packaging, separate warehouse management, dedicated shelves, different labels. The experience with smartphones, where Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi have already gone down this path, suggests what the outcome will be, viz only one version of the product, without charger, with the power supply available as a paid accessory. If it goes like this, anyone who wants to buy a new laptop will have to take into account a non-negligible additional expense, given that prices fluctuate between 40 and 50 euros for common brands, and even more for premium models.
Who is excluded
The rule does not apply to all laptops without distinction. The most powerful gaming notebooks, those over 240 watts, remain excluded from the single rulewhich will likely continue to use a hybrid system with a USB-C port for light use and a proprietary connector for high-intensity sessions. The reason is technical, because the USB Power Delivery standard is not yet able to reliably handle such high energy demands. High-end gaming laptops and mobile workstations, equipped with dedicated graphics cards that alone require hundreds of watts, therefore remain outside the perimeter for now.
The environmental and economic objective
Behind the rule there is also an issue related to electronic waste: every year EU citizens spend around 2.4 billion euros on the purchase of chargers, of which only two out of three are actually used, with an accumulation of 11,000 tonnes of electronic waste annually. As regards the regulatory path, it will continue in the long and medium term – the deadline for this second phase is set for 2028 – with a new Regulation on Ecodesign, in which the EU will impose the integration of at least one USB-C port even on external power supplies, it will introduce the “Common Charger” logo, new eco-friendly requirements and stricter rules on energy efficiency.
