Right to repair or right to repair: To curb e-waste and abusive practices by manufacturers to prevent users from repairing their devices, the EU is reportedly preparing a bill that would legalize the “right to repair” and oblige sellers to design products with a longer lifespan and easier maintenance.
The upcoming bill is already in the public debate stage, and has the support of several EU parliamentarians, as well as organizations such as Greenpeace, which constantly protests the current practices of major manufacturers.
Planned Obsolescence
The term “planned obsolescence” is used to describe products that are intentionally designed to break shortly after their warranty expires, forcing consumers to constantly buy new ones.
Greenpeace says this practice, used for decades, has led to the accumulation of huge amounts of e-waste that cannot be managed in environmentally safe conditions.
Through its new legislation, the EU plans to impose new regulations on manufacturers wishing to sell their devices in Europe, such as better product design practices that focus on longevity. One of the requirements of the law will be to manufacture products that are repair-friendly.
What about “locked” products?
A first EU report outlining the upcoming legislation (available here) reportedly gives users the legal right to have their products repaired at any repair shop they choose.
Currently, manufacturers use lockouts on their devices to prevent customers from repairing them or having products repaired at unauthorized stores.
Large businesses, such as Apple, phone manufacturers, printer vendors, and others, use legal contracts or software locks (DRM) to generate secondary financial flows from the repair and maintenance market.
The EU wants products that can be reused as spare parts
In addition to granting any EU citizen the legal right to have their product repaired anywhere they like without risking losing their warranty, the European Parliament also plans to require companies to create products with “repairability.”.
By “repair-friendly” the EU refers to products that have spare parts that can be replaced when needed.
The EU argues that by replacing only the part of a product that is not working, it will reduce the amount of e-waste produced each year.
The EU also argues that, with the introduction of the new legislation on the right to repair, new jobs will come to the repair market that have been lost since retailers started limiting repair work to selected stores or only within their own stores.
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Currently, in the US, eleven states use similar laws that were adopted after years of public debate and only for certain markets and not for all products on the market.
Of course, big business will try to fight this bill tooth and nail, as their revenues will be significantly reduced.
So it is very likely that the EU plan will be swamped with endless discussions, just like it happened in the US.
