Comment Re: Excellent (Score 1) 121
Apple made that change in March of 2015. The EU didn't even *start* talking about standardizing on USB-C until roughly January of 2020.
While the standardization on USB-C arrived later, the EU started campaigning for standardization and regulation of chargers much earlier, first trying an approach based on voluntary industry adherence, then moving to more strict regulation and first targeting some devices before broadening the scope.
The EU asked the industry to standardize chargers for mobile phones in 2009 and released a corresponding standard in 2010. In 2014 they published a review of the impact of the change, which led to moving towards a mandatory regulation as opposed to voluntary industry commitment.
So I'm not sure whether Apple did the change in 2015 due to EU regulatory pressure, but the EU was definitely already involved in the matter.
The EU was pushing for micro-USB. Apple ignored them almost completely, doing the absolute minimum required to technically comply with the law. Apple is fond of malicious compliance, and has been for a long time.