Elon Musk, who wanted the EU abolished, now praises its regulators: Have to give credit where it’s due for making all Apple products…
The post crossed 3.4 million views within hours. The EU’s common charger directive, adopted in November 2022, made USB-C mandatory for phones, tablets, earbuds, cameras, handheld consoles and other small devices sold in the bloc from December 28, 2024. Laptops followed in 2026. Apple made the switch with the iPhone 15 in September 2023, retiring the Lightning port it had used since 2012. By 2025, the rest of its accessories had moved over as well.
“Have to give the EU regulators credit where it’s due for making all Apple products use USB-C,” Musk posted on X early Tuesday. When one user replied that it was the best thing the EU ever did, Musk answered with a “100” emoji. To another who wrote “Yes, but…”, he added a caveat of his own: “USB-C firmware is complex. Greg Joswiak, its senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in October 2022 that the company and the EU had been in “a little bit of a disagreement”. Speaking at a tech conference in California, he conceded Apple would “obviously” have to comply, while maintaining that a less prescriptive approach would have been better for customers and the environment.
Elon Musk has found something in Brussels he likes. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who less than a year ago called for the European Union to be scrapped, publicly credited EU regulators for pushing Apple onto USB-C. The rule Musk is praising is one Apple resisted for years. Apple argued that forcing a single connector would hold back innovation.