EU confirms Apple can make a portless iPhone without USB-C

The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be the slimmest iPhone Apple has ever made, and a report over the weekend suggested that the company even considered making it the first portless phone. It said the iPhone maker ultimately decided against this, in part because it feared removing the USB-C port would have brought it into conflict with the EU.

However, I’ve had confirmation from the bloc that dropping the USB-C port for a completely portless phone would in fact be completely legal …

Apple’s forced switch to USB-C

Apple famously had to swap out its proprietary Lightning port for a USB-C one in order to comply with EU environmental legislation – specifically the Common Charger Directive.

The EU was concerned about needless electrical waste when different smartphones and other consumer electronics devices used different charging ports. This resulted in consumers needing multiple chargers for different devices. The bloc therefore required all devices sold in the European Union to use a common charging port.

Amusingly, when the legislation was first proposed, the most common port used was the truly awful microUSB, so this would have been the standard specified. Fortunately, by the time the law was finalized, USB-C had become the new de-facto standard, so this became the port embodied into law.

Apple had already adopted USB-C charging for Macs and iPads, but was still using the Lightning port for iPhones. The law required it to switch to USB-C for iPhones also.

As the January 2025 deadline approached, the only remaining iPhones with Lightning ports which Apple still sold directly were the iPhone SE and the iPhone 14. Apple ceased sales of both models just ahead of the deadline.

Bloomberg says Apple worried about portless iPhone

We’ve long suggested that Apple would at some point drop wired charging from one or more iPhone models, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the company had considered doing so for the iPhone 17 Air.

An even bigger idea was to make the Air device Apple’s first completely port-free iPhone. That would mean losing the USB-C connector and going all-in on wireless charging and syncing data with the cloud. The world is probably ready for this change.

He went on to say Apple had decided against this, in part because of the EU legislation.

Apple ultimately decided not to adopt a port-free design with the new iPhone, which will still have a USB-C connector. One major reason: There were concerns that removing USB-C would upset European Union regulators, who mandated the iPhone switch to USB-C.

But EU confirms portless phones are permitted

However, it was my understanding that the Common Charger Directive only said that if a device has a wired charging port then it must be USB-C – that’s not the same as saying a USB-C port is mandatory.

I’ve now confirmed this with European Commission press officer Federica Miccoli, whose remit covers the internal market and industrial strategy, asking whether a portless phone would be compliant with the law.

Yes. Since, such radio equipment cannot be recharged via wired charging, it does not need to incorporate the harmonised (wired) charging solution.

The law does call on the EU to take action in support of wireless charging standards, rather than proprietary ones.

The Commission will promote the harmonisation of wireless charging in order to avoid future fragmentation of the internal market and any negative effects on consumer and the environment. The Commission will monitor the evolution of all types of wireless charging technologies (not only inductive), particularly market developments, market penetration, market fragmentation, technological performance, interoperability, energy efficiency and charging performance.

As stated in recital 13 of the Common Charger Directive, “the Commission should take action towards promoting and harmonising such solutions to avoid future fragmentation of the internal market.”

However, Apple has already ‘donated’ the MagSafe standard to the Wireless Power Consortium, where it has become a common standard branded Qi2. This means that a future portless phone with only MagSafe charging would be perfectly legal to sell in EU countries.

It may not be happening in this year’s iPhone 17 Air, but a fully portless iPhone is only a matter of time.