The European Commission adopted a new set of rules on the right to repair which will add electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets to the list of goods that must be manufactured with the possibility of repair.
The new rules will have to be negotiated between the European Parliament and the Member States before they become law. Yes they are, they will change much more than repairability requirements.
Shops selling consumer goods in the EU will have to offer free repairs within a statutory warranty period, unless it is cheaper to replace a damaged item.
In addition, the Directive adds a series of rights for the repair of devices outside the statutory warranty periods which, according to the EC, will help to make repair a better option than simply discarding a damaged product.
Under the new post-warranty rule, companies that manufacture products that the EU defines as subject to repairability requirements (e.g. home appliances, business computing equipment, and soon phones and tablets) shall be obligated to repair such items for a period of five to ten years after purchase, if requested by the customer and repair is possible.
Equipment manufacturers are required to inform consumers about products they must repair, and consumers can ask a repairman for a new repair information form that makes pricing and fees more transparent.
The post-warranty repair rule also provides for the creation of a “repair search platform” online for EU consumers and calls for the creation of a European repair standard that “Help consumers identify repairers committed to superior quality.”
In addition to approving the right to reparation rule yesterday, the EC proposed a series of laws against “green wash” this would make it illegal to make ecological claims about a product without proof. This could be another area where Big Tech could struggle.
