This EU law banning unlocking story was untrue. The publication posting it retracted it in a subsequent story without updating the original.
1) https://xiaomitime.com/eu-kills-android-bootloader-unlock-starting-august-1-59449/
2) https://xiaomitime.com/dont-panic-eu-isnt-ending-bootloader-unlocks-soon-59697/
The claims they cited were AI generated which they admit in the follow up story.
Discussion
This still takes some deeper looking into:
Danielle brings up a good counter point here its not all clear
My gut feeling is they are writing laws in phases to close the gap eventually of what they want vs what they can get away with, classic EU behavior
good.
keep inching toward complete disintegration of the "union" itself.