Apple refused to implement mirco-USB when the EU issued guidelines to use USB because of electronic waste. Apple refused to even talk to the EU about it. So with Apple refusing to engage with the elected representatives of the EU then the EU got to the point of having to force Apple to engage; legislation.

TLDR: The EU wanted less e-waste. Apple refused to engage, so the EU forced them to engage or leave.

The problem is that the EU is illegitimate and a circus clown shoe of pencil necked bureaucratic authoritarians.

I’m not even a fan of Apple look e for different reasons, but the very same reason Apple is likely not even engaging the EU clowns and their attempt at making Apple products worse with Micro USB (what a horrible design and technology because of it), it’s also the very same reason that the EU cannot ban Apple, because Apple is to god and the market leader in design and creating good products that people actually want.

I can assure you that Apple’s lightning connector has caused there to be less waste than any other manufacturer.

Case in point too; I just bought a temporary Nokia phone. And here it is, 2023, and they’re still using that horrible MicroUSB design plug that you have to look at every single time to make sure you get the plug in correctly. OUSD also discriminatory against the blind who have to feel they plug itself to figure out which way is up, whereas I can plug the lightning connector into any of the Apple devices in pitch black darkness because they go in the same every time.

> The EU tried the soft approach for many years, and Apple stubbornly refused to play.

"We tried giving you an option, but you kept picking wrong, so we're taking your right to choose away."

Yes, a completely reasonable choice when they made the goal clear (reducing waste) and literally everyone else managed to work together and Apple was the only one who decided to play stupid games.

We may tolerate the fiction of corporate personhood in some circumstances, but companies are not people, and their "rights" should be strictly limited - especially when they purposefully ignore the wishes of elected representatives for a decade.

From the fact you've spontaneously brought up corporate personhood as a bit of a strawman to pummel, it seems like your disagreements with the operation of the modern economy may go beyond mere cable standardisation.

I didn't bring it up. You brought it up when you talked about "taking away rights" from a corporation.

Apple has had 2 style plugs in 20 years. They are there only ones who have done that. You’re someone just brainwashed over this when I am confident of you just paused for a second and thought about what utter foolishness you supported, you would realize that very thing. If any of the tech companies has “reduced waste”, an oxymoron in its own right, then it’s Apple. I use cables for latest iPhones that were made for phones that are now 10 years old, and I also use the same cables and chargers for iPads I use for iPhones. I implore you to just stop, center yourself and think your own thoughts about all of this. It’s rather bizarre when people are so mixed up in the head of over things because they repeat propaganda rather than thinking their own thoughts and following deductive logic to its final conclusion.