Not quite, it means that device makers will have to make the charger an
optional extra. Which has already happened with iPhone, Google Pixel and (I believe) some Samsung phones, even outside the EU (because it makes sense, even if it took a nudge from the EU). So, law or otherwise, it's quite likely to come to laptops when the EU directive rolls out to laptops in 2026 (...and by then, USB-C adapters supporting more than 100W should be more common).
The "Consumers will be able to purchase a new electronic device without a new charger" line comes from
this link, and AFAIK, so far, its just an aspiration, not the law, and if you read down you'll see the bit I quoted earlier about the 4-year review of "unbundling" which makes it clear that unbundling isn't
currently mandatory.
Unfortunately (understandably, because EU directives are written
by lawmakers
for lawmakers and are consequently almost impossible for us mere mortals to understand) , everybody is quoting from summaries, EU press releases and press articles rather than the actual EU directive - plus, EU directives aren't even laws, they are instructions to EU member states to
update their own laws
- so there's another layer of "interpretation" between the directive and what the law is in (say) Germany or Spain.
NB: EU directives aren't laws - they are
directives to member states to modify their own laws so they are only a baseline for what actually ends up on the statute books. Then there are other countries (including the UK now) who aren't EU member states but for whom it just makes sense to align their own laws with at least
some EU directives.
There is now - the USB Power Delivery Spec (which is referenced by the EU directive) defines a range of power specifications up to 240W in the lates version, which would be enough to power a small desktop. Also, its a smart connector that negotiates the voltage and current, so if you plug a 15W charger into a 100W device you won't let the magic smoke out - and in most cases it will still charge, if slowly - worst case, nothing happens. Plug a 240W charger into a 15W device - with an old-style dumb charger that would fry the device with 50V, with USB PD the device will only ever see 9V or less unless it signals that it can take more.
The EU common charger directive doesn't roll out to laptops until 2026 (and that will presumably be
new laptops) so there's plenty of time for the > 100W flavours of USB PD to emerge.
That's already done -
USB Power Delivery Profiles 1-7 - or just look at the "wattages" and make sure the charger power is >= the laptop power (if not, you should still get a trickle charge).