More on the Lack of an Included Charger With New M5 MacBooks in Europe, Including the U.K. and Norway

While poking fun at EU regulations leading Apple not to include a power adapter with the new M5 MacBook Pro across Europe, I wondered why the U.K. — which left the EU five years ago — was affected. DF reader CA wrote, via email:

We did indeed leave the EU, but remain aligned to some of their standards like food and consumer goods through a thing called the Windsor Framework. Because the UK includes Northern Ireland, which has an open border with the Republic of Ireland, and the RoI is part of the EU, and the border MUST remain open for historical reasons, there has to be a way of ensuring UK goods that don’t meet EU standards don’t enter the EU via Northern Ireland. Hence, we agreed to align to a selection of their standards to ensure the border can stay open.

That’s why everything has to be USB-C and power supplies aren’t in the M5 MacBook Pro boxes, but we aren’t affected by the DMA shenanigans — those don’t apply to physical goods, only the configuration of the software.

Something similar is surely the reason why the power adapter isn’t in the box for Norway, either — a country that has never been part of the EU. Here’s Wikipedia’s entry on the Windsor Framework, and here’s a UK government “Call for Evidence” from a year ago regarding a requirement to follow the EU’s Common Charger Directive.

★ Monday, 20 October 2025