News USB-IF launches Type-C Authentication Programme

Nice idea, but couldn't that be used by manufactures to force you to pay over the odds of chargers etc.
Eg. Oneplus decide they'll only allow oneplus chargers to charge their phones. They could then charge a fortune for spare chargers as the users are a captive market?

I suspect Apple would be the first company to do that given their history of trying to lock people in

 

They can do that perfectly well today too, with everybody using their own proprietary handshaking.
At least with a standardised signing method, when the EU inevitably throws it's "everyone just play nice and use the same standard, for $^£&$ sake, don't make me come up there..." weight around again (as with the adoption of USB charging) everyone is already on the standard and can add additional certs to the whitelist, rather than 'Oh, sorry, you'll need to swap your Bongophone 11 to a Bongophone 12 for inter-charger compatibility'.

 

But this isn't the kind of thing any manufacturer will announce, they'll just do it. I've no doubt Apple will be the first and noobdy will know about it until iPhones are refusing to charge unless connected to an Apple cable that is connected to an Apple charger or a Macbook.

Then Apple will publish videos of Chinesium cables bursting into flames to head off any regulatory blow back. Then they'll announce licensing deals with various third parties, all at huge expense to the end user.

 

To put things into perspective: electronically marked cables have been a part of the Type C standard from the get-go. Have you heard of any incidents of a device 'blocking' a cable based on the EMCA, or lack thereof?

 

This is just a bad idea. Give 'em an inch, etc..

Also:

Erm... Brexit?

 

Irrelevant.

IF hypothetically speaking Apple decided to prevent any USB-C thingamajig from working with their devices until the 3rd party manufacturer has coughed up a hefty licensing fee and the EU said it was wrong to do so there is no chance of Apple not wanting the money from 400+ million consumers any more, so you could then just import the EU version (which lacks said artificial restriction) of that hypothetical Apple product.