When photos of the forthcoming iPhone 15 recently leaked, they confirmed what many observers had been expecting: In a departure from its longstanding policy of equipping its smartphones with proprietary charging ports, U.S. tech giant Apple will join every other major smartphone maker and outfit its newest phones with a standardized USB-C plug.
For Columbia Law School professor Anu Bradford, the company’s move was a sign that the phenomenon she described in 2020 in her book, The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World—that the EU is a regulatory superpower whose laws are copied and adhered to around the world—is just as relevant today as it was then.
