Among Apple’s current lineup, the iPhones that still feature a Lightning connector are the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and the third-generation iPhone SE. Recently, all three models were pulled from sale in 29 countries, including parts of the UK. This raises the question: will other nations follow suit?
On Saturday, December 28, 2024, a crucial EU directive will come into effect. The European Union has mandated that all mobile devices, including cameras, phones, and tablets, must adopt a standard charging connector USB-C. This initiative aims to reduce electronic waste and promote uniformity across devices.
Apple fought against the move because it thought it would limit innovation. However, the update was successful, and beginning with the iPhone 15, Apple began using the USB-C port in their iPhones. For example, all ports for iPads, AirPods, Magic Mouse, and Magic Keyboard are now USB-C only.
As a result, the three iPhone models mentioned earlier those built on the Lightning connector had to be discontinued by December 28 in order to meet the requirements.
Customers in all 27 EU nations discovered on Friday, December 27, that the only iPhone models available for purchase on Apple’s website are the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, iPhone 16, 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Are these phones no longer available in the EU? Not exactly. You can find unused iPhone 14s sold by third-party resellers; for example, you can still buy one from other stores
The ban goes even further. The prohibition is applicable even in Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU but has many agreements with the bloc. There is no physical border between the Irish Republic and the northern part of the UK because separate trade regulations were put in place for Northern Ireland, even though the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union in 2020. Belfast has also banned the sale of the affected phones.
And there is some irony in this because the Republic does not have an official Apple Store.
Even if the iPhone SE is seeing falling sales due to the impending release of a new model in the spring of 2025, the current state of affairs is far from perfect.
How does this impact regions other than Europe? Even if the impacts may be small, other countries will have been closely monitoring. The iPhone 14 is due to be phased out everywhere this autumn, so even if laws were passed quickly, they probably wouldn’t actually go into effect until then.
