EU Universal Phone Charger Law: What does everyone think?

[Timewarp]

I'm not sure if anyone is interested but the EU has passed a law that forces all cellphones to use the same charger instead of multiply different versions, tech companies have till 2017 till the law can be enforced with EU Countries being expected to put this into their local laws and already Nokia, Apple and RIM have come forward backing the law, the charger in question is I'm assuming going to be a Micro-USB socket charger. The EU are saying this law is being put into order to reduce waste, costs and hassle for users.

But do we really need this law? Personally I'm on the fence with this, on the one hand it'd make things easier if all tech uses the same sockets but then again on the other hand it sounds like the EU is forcing people into making a decision that at best is just a small annoyance. Lately the EU has had this attitude of "Do what I say and if you don't like it then too bad" So what does everyone think? Are the EU evil phone overlords or do we really need this law?

I know there's a few guys in the US so basically if you're unaware (which is cool, I'm not all that clear as to how US Law works) basically the EU stands for the European Union which is a lot like the UN or the US Government but for Europe. I might be a little biased against the EU since the guys seemingly have it in for England, they just ignore us or force petty rules onto us like giving prisoners the right to vote "Hey guys you know those guys who broke the law? LET'S LET THOSE GUYS VOTE!" Yeah that makes all the sense in the world

SIDE NOTE: I did think it was equally petty for my country to refuse to have EU flags up, you'd think we would given we're in the EU so it's not like it's one-sided.

 

[stolenxnametag]

This is a great topic, but I have to say - it's a hard for me to address.

If you consider the positives, they basically help customers to not have to buy a new charger everytime a new phone comes out. Prior to smartphones stealing the thunder from previous cellphone models, that's how things were here in the United States. LG, Panasonic, Sony Ericsson, Sharp, Samsung, and whoever else had their own special type of connections for their different types of phones. Sony Ericsson were the worst about this. I had one of their phones like 10 years ago, and it had this wide, flat thing that hooked into it from the charging cable. My friend's Sony Ericsson had a more narrow end on it, which meant that our two phones couldn't share chargers. My next phone, which was a Motorola, had a completely different charging cable, so I had to buy a new car charger as well. A law that placed a standard on this would have been nice back then!

Fast forward to 2014 - most people I know have smartphones, and they all use a micro-usb cable, with the exceptions of Apple and Samsung and their latest flagships that have new proprietary cables. Despite both companies' willingness to 100% comply with what everyone else is doing (both companies made their phones slightly compatible with micro-usb, but it comes at the cost of slower charge speeds), I can't be mad at what they've done. In Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 charger, it allows for a USB-3.0 cable to be attached to it for faster charging and data transfer speeds. Apple's lightning chargers are designed to have higher transfer speeds as well. Thus, I can't find it necessary to demonize these companies for innovating, even if it costs me a few more dollars to buy the cables. This would mean that the negatives are purely inconvenience and the potential price-gouge scenario (I remember when iPod - USB charge cables were $10 for a 1-foot cable; that was insane).

Considering all of these terms, I would say that there should be a law against charging outrageous prices for these power supply / data transfer cables on phones. If a company wants to innovate, let them do it, but don't let them fuck me out of an unreasonable amount of money just because I want a specific kind of phone.

 

[Timewarp]

No it's cool, I don't think it's ok to just tell people "You're not a part of this group therefore you don't have a right to an opinion on this!" I'd agree 100% with what you're saying, these days companies want to act like everything is business and then when our governments try to create laws to stop companies from taking advantage of their consumers all them cry foul play. I don't get how guys in corporations can act like their the victims when there's so many loop holes they can abuse for instance the loop hole the assholes are using at the moment to abuse tax law,

Basically they create a shell company, give the shell company certain licenses to their products and then have the shell company sue them for damages to the licenses thus making it look like they made a loss meaning they don't have to pay taxes on the money they made. Another reason why Copyright and Trademarking laws in the US and EU need to change. Having a standard for phone chargers is a small problem but still a problem.

I'd like there to be a standard and hopefully if we're getting this law then the US Government consider passing a similar law although I don't think you should hold your breath too soon considering what US Corporations are like again your government tries passing a law and guys like Fox will instantly begin their "Barrack Obama is Anti-corporate and is Satan Incarnate!" rants. I don't get how Fox can call anything in their country Anti-Corporate, I mean it's the biggest advocate for Capitalism in the world where companies can get away with literal murder and half the companies are allowed to abuse US Law to avoid paying taxes while their bosses complain about government hand-outs. I wonder why the American people would feel a little negative towards corporations? (Don't answer Corporations, the question was rhetorical)

 

[Chandler Wood]

I'm not sure of the logistics behind it, but the US has been doing this for a while now. I don't know if it's a law (it may have been), but it's extremely nice not to have to do the whole thing of trying to find someone who has a charger that will work. In fact, now I have more chargers than I know what to do with, but my phone is always charged, so that's a good thing.

 

[BigPete7978]

I'm not sure of the logistics behind it, but the US has been doing this for a while now. I don't know if it's a law (it may have been), but it's extremely nice not to have to do the whole thing of trying to find someone who has a charger that will work. In fact, now I have more chargers than I know what to do with, but my phone is always charged, so that's a good thing.

THIS ^^^
I remember many years ago I always had issues where my phone wasn't compatible with other chargers, quite a pain.