[jupp0r]

Yes, have you ever visited the United States? Their AC wall plugs are extremely bad. They wiggle out all the time and expose hot connectors before falling out. You can literally shock yourself by partially unplugging a wall connector and putting your finger on exposed connectors.

[electroly]

The result of the same sort of regulation in the UK is the opposite; they have excellent plugs and sockets. It doesn't seem that regulated standardization inherently stifles innovation, but you do run the risk of standardizing on the wrong thing.

[jupp0r]

I think the problem with something like USB-C is that technology is still evolving (while AC power distribution is pretty much settled). Just imagine solid state batteries allowing multi kW charging. USB-C isn't physically able to do this afaik.

[JAlexoid]

That's why multi-kW charging is out of scope of this regulation...