From today forward, the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and the third-gen iPhone SE are no longer available for purchase in the majority of European Union countries. We knew this was coming after a set of EU guidelines stipulated that all mobile devices must charge through USB-C.
You’ll no longer find any of these phones for sale online in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and most other EU countries, according to MacRumors. The iPhone 14 generation was the last to use Lightning cables, so rather than update an already-outclassed handset, Apple pulled the devices from the market.
These phones are still for sale in the United Kingdom, however, due to its departure from the EU in 2020. Apple began to decrease availability in stores last week, but you might still see the occasional iPhone 14 for sale in an Apple Store or in certified retailers. And because the iPhone SE still uses Lightning chargers, it’s been pulled, too. However, we do expect to see the iPhone SE 4 release in the next few months, and it will almost certainly use USB-C.
In October, the European Union Parliament voted to standardize charging solutions across all devices. This means that all laptops, phones, tablets, and other gadgets should work with a standard USB-C plug, and that anything that operates with 100W of power delivery has to use the USB-C standard. The deadline to make this change is the end of the year, so Apple is coming in just under the wire with four days to spare.
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“The common charger will finally become a reality in Europe,” said Parliament rapporteur Alex Agius Saliba. By homogenizing charging standards, the European Union further enforces consumer protections and makes life that much more convenient for the end-user.