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This is due to rules imposed by the EU.

> Unbundling the sale of a charger from the sale of the electronic device

https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/electrica...

That links says that customers “are able to” not that “they must”. The website makes it sound that companies must sell a version without a charger, not they must sell only without a charger.
Why would Apple double the number of SKUs in European counties just to comply with this? Selling the charger separately is a more pragmatic choice that avoids unnecessarily complicating the product line to comply with these mounting EU regulations.
Yea that’s how regulations work. If the EU wanted both options then it should have specified that.
Still, it seems like a bad play by apple. They already struggle in Europe, I don’t understand why they need to make things harder on themselves
Because Apple always behaves like a kid when loses a battle with their parents, and does malicious compliance.
> I don’t understand why [THE EU] need to make things harder on themselves

FTFY

The harmonised charging rules have been very popular with consumers. Apple hasn’t done themselves any favours with their malicious compliance approach.
This is on the EU. Not bundling a charger with electronics that cost hundreds of dollars/euros is dumb, and having it be a requirement is even dumber.

And yea I’m definitely still salty from the time I bought a 3DS and then got on a 14hr flight to Shanghai, only to find out it didn’t come with the proprietary charger.

This is Apple’s choice to sell only the version without a charger.
If that’s what the EU wants then why didn’t they require it?

If you’re forced to break the two components into two SKUs, that’s what you’re going to do- optimize. Not make a third SKU to add confusion. What if you’re out of stock of the charger-less SKU? Does that put you in violation of EU rules?

Have the laptop only come in three cordless sku, then offer to include a charge (in its own box) for three price difference at checkout.

Cause it also send like Apple is just pocketing the price difference, which is entirely on them.

You don’t work in hardware. Now someone has to open a box and put a charger in? And you have to ship air for the other SKU? How much fuel/energy was wasted shipping empty space?

No one is going to do that. They’re going to package them separately and ship the box. And the onus is STILL on the user to manually add a charger to their cart. When they forget or don’t realize, they’ll complain, just like people are complaining here.

The EU made a bad rule. They should have exempted electronics above a certain price point. Their rule only really makes sense in the context of junk that costs $9.99 being shipped with a cheap charger and cables that no one wants.

Every eurocent counts.
This is just dumb. I understand for phones because we all have 1 million of those cables around. But laptop, charging bricks and cable cables are not easy to come by and they’re expensive. I guess that’s the point.