Joe Rossignol
Starting today, the third-generation iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus are listed as unavailable in Apple's Swiss online store ahead of a ruling that will require smartphones with wired charging capability that recently went on sale in the European Union (EU) to have a USB-C port.
Switzerland is not officially part of the EU, but the country participates in the EU's single market and is thus subject to EU trade laws.
While all iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models feature USB-C ports for wired charging, the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus still have Lightning ports, so Apple appears to be responding to upcoming ruling. The law applies to any individual iPhone devices offered for sale after the deadline, even if they are older models.
French website iGeneration reported last week that the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus would no longer be sold through Apple's online store and retail stores in EU countries from December 28, when the ruling comes into force. However, the report said that iPhone sales would be stopped at Apple's online store in Switzerland about a week earlier, and that this has already happened. Availability at Apple's retail locations in Switzerland would continue until December 28, the report said.
Given that the aspect of the report regarding Switzerland has now been proven accurate, it is likely that Apple will make the affected iPhones unavailable in all 27 EU countries next week, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and others. While the United Kingdom left the EU in 2020, Northern Ireland remains part of the EU single market.
Apple's authorised resellers in the EU will be able to continue selling iPhones until their remaining stocks are depleted, the report says.
Apple is expected to announce the fourth-generation iPhone SE with a USB-C port in March, so the device should return to the EU quickly. Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus would likely have been discontinued in September if there had been no USB-C regulation, so sales of those devices in the EU end about nine months early.
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