As with anything that bears a whiff of EU regulation, these mildly irritating lids have also become something of a lightning rod: a punching bag for those who don’t want to have a bit of a rant about accidentally soaking their T-shirt in Fanta, but instead want to start hand-wringing about overbearing bureaucracy and the nanny state.
I only found out about these lids during a recent travel. Not really annoying. Just curious about why suddenly every drink i had a same kind of lid... This article answered my queries.