The Brussels effect – how the EU is raising standards around the world

EU standards and consumer protection regulations have a habit of being enforced globally. Why is that? And is it such a bad thing?

Lots of different power adapters
Companies often accept the EU’s strictures rather than get involved in regulatory tangles
(Image credit: © Alamy)

The European Commission has announced new rules covering mobile phones and several other kinds of consumer electronics goods that mean products sold in the EU will have to be fitted with a standard USB type-C charging port.

The new rule (assuming it is signed off by the European Parliament and European Council) will take effect from the autumn of 2024 and will initially apply to “small and medium-sized portable electronics”, including tablets, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles, e-readers and portable speakers, as well as mobile phones.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.