Apple Begins Discontinuing iPhone SE and iPhone 14 in EU Ahead of USB-C Requirement

Friday December 20, 2024 6:52 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Starting today, the third-generation iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus, are listed as unavailable on Apple's online store in Switzerland, ahead of a regulation that will require smartphones with wired charging capabilities that are newly placed for sale to be equipped with a USB-C port in the European Union (EU).

iPhone SE 3 Apple Newsroom
Switzerland is not officially part of the EU, but the country participates in the single EU market and is thereby subject to EU trading laws.

While all iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models are equipped with 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 the upcoming regulation. The law applies to any individual iPhone unit placed for sale after the deadline, even if they are older models.

French website iGeneration last week reported 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 starting December 28, which is when the regulation goes into force. However, the report said sales of the iPhones would be halted on Apple's online store in Switzerland around one week earlier, and that has now happened. The report said in-store availability at Apple's retail locations in Switzerland will continue until December 28.

Given that the Switzerland aspect of the report has now proven to be accurate, it is likely next week that Apple will make the affected iPhones unavailable across all 27 countries in the EU, 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 continues to participate in the single EU market.

Apple Authorized Resellers in the EU will be able to continue selling the iPhones until their remaining inventory is depleted, the report said.

Apple is expected to announce a fourth-generation iPhone SE with a USB-C port in March, so the device should quickly return to the EU. Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus likely would have been discontinued in September had the USB-C regulation not existed, so sales of those devices are ending in the EU around nine months early.

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Top Rated Comments

nathansz

24 months ago

Very sad. And spineless of Apple not to pull all its products out of the EU in protest.

why is it sad that apple obeys the law?

Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)

WildCowboy

24 months ago

Good luck finding the actual law & interpreting it if you do. (AFAIK "EU Directives" are instructions that it is up to member states to implement, anyway).

If you could, I expect it will contain several pages of legalese on what constitutes a "new product" to stop manufacturers claiming that everything is an existing product (or there will be legal precedent to establish that). Put simply - a 2024 Porche 911 can't get away with no seatbelts and leaded petrol.

We covered the most relevant explanation in our earlier article ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/12/13/iphone-14-and-iphone-se-eu-report/') on this situation, noting that it applies on the individual unit level, not to models in general, so that's why Apple can't just keep making and selling these indefinitely as an existing product.

There's much more detail in the EU's guide ('https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:C:2022:247:FULL') to explain what it means for a specific unit to be made available on the market or placed on the market. Units that have been passed along to third-party retailers, carriers, etc. have already been distributed, so those retailers can continue to sell through existing stocks. Things are tougher for Apple selling direct. We saw a similar situation in the U.S. with the Apple Watch blood oxygen feature that was barred from import. Apple had to stop selling Apple Watches with it more or less immediately, but retailers like Best Buy kept selling through existing stock of models with it enabled for months.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

foobarbaz

24 months ago

Big deal. Let the Europeans stuck in the Eurozone buy them online if they want them.

Why would they want them? Nobody should invest anything into Lightning at this point, let alone an almost 3 year old phone. Honestly, they should probably discontinue them everywhere.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TheOldChevy

24 months ago

I like the current form factor of the SE and I am fine with the current connector, but having all on USB-C is a reasonable evolution. I only regret that the next SE will probably be bigger and will go for FaceID.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DavidSchaub

24 months ago

This seems like a weird reading of the law.

Suggesting that old lighting-port phones that have already been made, couldn't be sold in the EU in January feels like a massive e-Waste disaster, wasn't the point of the law?

I had thought that the law only impacts NEW products being introduced.

As an alternate theory:

Perhaps the SE3 and 14 are being pulled because the SE4 is coming, and it is going to replace the SE3 in name, and the iPhone14 in price point?

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)