In June 2009, following an approach by the EU Commission, the major producers of mobile phones, responsible for the production of 90% or so of mobile phones placed on the EU market, agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to harmonise chargers for new data-enabled mobile phones. The MoU specifies that "all new mobile phone models and new chargers models on the market produced by the signatories shall offer this common charging capability one year after the related standards have become available". The MoU also permits compliance to be achieved by making a suitable adaptor available to customers.
The European Standard was agreed at the end 2010 and the provision became applicable one year thereafter at the end of 2011. The EU Commission estimates that the universal charger should therefore be dominant in the market at the end of this year having regard to the rate at which the majority of mobile phones are replaced, every two years, in a market, which now favours data enabled phones. The MoU is nevertheless a voluntary code. The EU Commission has recently presented a proposal to the Council and the European Parliament for a “Directive on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment”, which includes a proposal on the harmonisation of chargers. The Commission’s proposal if adopted will provide a legal basis to require that all mobile phone chargers for data enabled phones placed on the market within the EU meet a harmonised standard.
