Apple stops putting EarPods in iPhone boxes in France after law change

EarPods opened (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Apple is no longer putting EarPods in the boxes of iPhones sold in France.
EarPods were already removed from international iPhone boxes.
Local laws required EarPods to be included in the box until this month.

Apple has stopped putting EarPods in the boxes of new iPhones in France following a change in local laws. Despite removing EarPods from the boxes of iPhones sold internationally, Apple continued to put them in the boxes of French iPhones until now.

The news that local laws were changing popped up earlier this month and Apple has now updated its website to show that the only things included in the boxes of iPhones from now on will be the iPhone itself as well as a USB-C to Lightning cable.

French Iphone Box Contents Screenshot (Image credit: Apple)

Apple stopped shipping EarPods in the box of international iPhones form iPhone 12 onwards, including last year;s iPhone 13. That went against French laws that required earbuds be included in the box to avoid people from having to put phones to their head to make a call — protecting them from exposure to electromagnetic waves.

While Apple no longer has to put EarPods in the box, French law does not require that it continues to offer them for sale to allow people to buy them if they so wish. In reality, it seems likely that people will opt for more modern wireless solutions including AirPods.

Apple isn't the only company that no longer offers earbuds in its boxes, of course. After initially mocking Apple for removing earbuds from its iPhone boxes Samsung later followed suit with its own devices, just as it did with the 3.5mm headphone jack previously. The same goes for a charger for that matter, too.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.