Apple fans who were looking to buy an iPhone SE or iPhone 14 from the company in the EU are out of luck.
All of Apple's devices utilizing Lightning ports have now been pulled from stores.
On Saturday, Dec. 28, the European Union's new rules making USB-C the standard connection for charging smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices officially went into effect. As a result, Apple has removed all of its Lightning-based devices from Apple Stores.
Apple devices with Lightning ports that were still being sold by the company, like the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone SE, were fully removed from the Apple Store on Friday, as reported by MacRumors.
The Lightning-based devices are no longer available on the online Apple Store in countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The Verge also confirmed the removal of these devices from Apple's EU Apple Stores.
Because the law only covers countries in the EU, Apple can still sell Lightning products in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The EU's USB-C charging mandate was approved in 2022 and forced companies to move to the standard by the end of 2024. The following year, Apple confirmed that the iPhone 15 would be the first Apple device to ditch the company's Lightning port and adopt the USB-C standard. By September 2024, Apple officially replaced every product using the Lightning port with a USB-C version.
While the iPhone 14 was succeeded by USB-C devices in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16, the iPhone SE hasn't been updated since 2022. So, for now, those in the EU looking to buy Apple's cheapest iPhone model are going to have to wait. Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone SE in March. And, yes, this one will have a USB-C charging port.
