DG ENTR publishes mobile phone charger harmonisation report

The EU Bookshop has published RPA’s study for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry on the impact of the MoU on harmonisation of chargers for mobile telephones and to assess possible future options.

In the past, mobile telephones were only compatible with specific mobile telephone chargers. Apart from causing inconvenience to the consumer, this created unnecessary electronic waste. In response to this, the European Commission facilitated an agreement among major handset manufacturers to adopt a common charger for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU.

In June 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in which mobile phone manufacturers agreed to harmonise chargers for new models of data-enabled handsets coming onto the market  as of 2011. The MoU expired at the end of 2012 but it has been effectively extended by a number of its signatories through two subsequent ‘Letters of Intent’ (LoI), signed in 2013 and 2014.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts these initiatives have had on the harmonisation of chargers for mobile telephones and indirectly on the markets for other portable electronic devices, and to assess the potential for further harmonisation.

Please click here to download the Final Report.