Apple asks Indian govt. to exempt older iPhones from USB-C charging rules

The Indian government wants to implement a rule similar to the one in European Union where all the smartphones in the country are required to have a standard USB-C charging port. However, Apple wants India to delay the implementation of this rule or at least exempt the older iPhones from it.

At the moment, only the new iPhone 15 series smartphones have the USB-C charging port. However, Indian consumers prefer buying older iPhone models like the iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 (renewed variants can be found on Amazon), which have a lightning port. Further, to comply with India’s PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme, Apple manufactures these phones locally in the country.

As reported by Reuters, in a closed-door meeting headed by the IT ministry of India, Apple asked the government to consider exempting older iPhone models from the standard charging rule. The tech company argued that it will otherwise struggle to fulfil targets laid down by the PLI program.

In India, the USB-C charging rule will come into effect in June 2025. In the meeting, Apple mentioned that it will be able to meet this timeline if the older iPhones were exempted. The Indian IT ministry will be reviewing the request and will be issuing a response later.