Today marks an important day for repair in Europe. Four types of electrical appliances will have to be made more easily repairable and longer-lasting following the entry into force of new EU Ecodesign measures.
The new measures will apply to washing machines, dishwashers, fridges and displays (including TVs) across Europe while similar rules for servers and welders came into force earlier this year.
While these new rules are an important step as the first ever regulations on repair for electronic and electrical devices, they do not mean that we have the Right to Repair in Europe. Yet. Here’s why:
1. Limited application
The regulations coming into force today only apply to new models of household appliances placed on the European market such as displays, washing machines, dishwashers and fridges, with specific rules on servers and welding equipment having taken effect earlier in the year.
Not included are devices such as smartphones and laptops, which are particularly affected by premature obsolescence and most often found to be discarded prematurely.
While these two categories of products are currently being investigated under their own Ecodesign study, it will still be years until any sort of repair requirements will be applicable to them, limiting considerably the scope of the new “Right to Repair” legislation.
2. Restricted access of some spare parts and repair manuals to professional repairers
While new Ecodesign rules might be a turning point when it comes to repair, this might benefit primarily professional repairers. The new laws will require producers to make most spare parts and repair manuals available to professional repairers only (for 7 to 10 years after retiring the product from the market, depending on product).
The regulation doesn’t guarantee access to key replacement parts and repair information to consumers as well as to non-profit and educational initiatives such as repair cafés. Our campaign is fighting for a universal Right to Repair, meaning everyone should be able to access spare parts and repair manuals for the entire lifetime of a product.
This is clearly not the case with those new rules.
““Professional repairers are finally granted the right to obtain some spare parts and repair information which is an important step towards a right to repair and must now be extended to more spare parts and additional product groups. However we are concerned that the new regulations explicitly distinguish between professional and non-professional repairers. In order to achieve the sustainability potential of repair, all consumers, volunteer repairers and professional independent repair shops should be able carry out a repair and access spare parts and information.”
Katrin Meyer, coordinator of Runder Tisch Reparatur
Moreover, the current definition of “professional repairer” remains very vague in the legislation. To qualify as such, a repairer would need to demonstrate coverage by insurance for their activity and technical expertise to repair a particular product and compliance with applicable regulations or be included in an official registration system as a professional repairer in European countries where such a system exists. As it currently stands, very few countries are working on official “repair registries” or are working to develop one, which allows manufacturers to decide who qualifies as a professional repairer or not.
Additionally, when it comes to repair information, the regulations don’t mention availability of “schematics”, which would be needed by repairers to perform component-level repairs.
Katrin Meyer adds: “Arguing with safety concerns while withholding safety information for repairs is not consistent.”
3. Long delivery time of spare parts
Everyone has already been in the situation of a broken home appliance, usually essential, that needs to be repaired or replaced as soon as possible. Speed of repair is often a deciding factor for many consumers between keeping a product or replacing it with a new one.
According to the new legislation, spare parts should be provided within 15 working days. This is extremely long for someone with a broken washing machine or fridge and could incite consumers to favour replacement over repair.
Additionally, the regulations allow manufacturers to restrict access to repair manuals, as well as spares, for the first 2 years from a product’s launch, potentially retaining an initial monopoly on repairs, irrespective of the warranty status.
4. Unaddressed software issues
Under the new regulation, manufacturers for the first time must make available the latest available firmware, software and security updates to professional repairers for the same amount of time they make available spare parts. While details differ by product category, the regulation doesn’t include any specific requirement for manufacturers to continue updating software throughout the lifetime of a product. This means that a manufacturer could comply with the regulations, while not committing to support products with software or security updates for the entire lifetime of their products. This is a worrying precedent, particularly at a time when appliances connect to the internet more and more.
5. Pricing and authorised bundling of spare parts
Unfortunately the regulation doesn’t address the pricing of spare parts, often considered as a key barrier in between a product being potentially repairable and repaired in practice.
Additionally, bundling of some spare parts will be allowed – meaning that instead of replacing a faulty part, repairers might be required to replace a larger part. Let’s take the example of a washing machine: instead of replacing the bearings in a washing machine drum, you might have to replace the whole drum. This is a clear victory for the industry, as the regulation doesn’t require manufacturer to redesign some key parts for repairability. But it’s very problematic for consumers and repairers as it keeps the price of some repairs high, which, in turn, can affect the choice to replace rather than repairing a product.
We urgently need a universal Right To Repair
The Ecodesign measures coming into force today are a great step forward. Energy labels are improved and combined with the repairability measures, they’re expected to jointly deliver 167 TWh of energy savings every year by 2030, as much as the final annual energy consumption of Denmark[1] .
But the many restrictions for consumers and independent repairers are a good illustration of how far we still are from having a true universal Right to Repair in Europe.
This is why the Right to Repair movement has been campaigning in Europe for the past year, pushing for more ambitious rules that extend products’ lifetime, support consumers’ desire for more repairable products and benefit a sustainable economy.
Media contact: chloe@therestartproject.org
Developing countries have a thriving repair ecosystem wherein trained technicians accredited by OEMs come and repair the durables. Thus, the OEMs are currently being hypocritical and applying different standards in different geos.
Having been the service industry all my life
I can identify with this movement.
A keen follower of Louis Rossmann in the USA. as that is the actor I am in. Now thinking of putting a link on my site to a “right to repair movement “ wether it be LR or a site in the UK. Perhaps all independent repair outlets should follow suit. I am sure this would raise more awareness.
Peter James
repairs@mrcomputer. co. uk
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your comment! This would be great indeed! We are thinking about a way to connect more with independant repair businesses and get them more involved in Right to Repair. Feel free to add our website on your site if you wish!
Have a lovely day,
Chloé
“actor” should be sector
y los telefonos no entran y los portatiles ? pues son productos altamente toxicos y contaminantes
que desproposito ,las leyes llegaran tarde probablemente llegue antes el dia del juicio final
que pena de gobiernos y de politicos.
I’m from FixPart, an organisation that sells spare parts for many appliances in The Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg (https://fixpart.nl/nl, https://fixpart.fr/fr). We want to write more about this subject (blogpost and on social media), because we strongly agree with the ‘right to repair’. Would like to get in contact about it. Hopefully it will be everywhere in Europe soon.
Hello Daisy,
Thanks for your interest in the Riht to Repair movement! Please get in touch via info@repair.eu.
Looking forward to your email.
Chloé
Hello Chloé,
Thanks for your reply! I sent you an email.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Daisy [https://fixpart.fr/fr]
Hello, we are a Fablab from the FWI caribean island: we are french.
Looking to support €uropean Effort for a #Right2Repair.
We do have a lawyer working as €uropan lobbyist in our accointance if that may be of any help.
My surname is Marsu, our Fablab is LE FABLAB DE JARRY please take contact ?
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1079626505782251&id=357694451308797
I have yet to understand why we are overcomplicating this with concepts of a professional repair registry etc. If I have a tool or an appliance which I want to fix myself, as a non-professional repair person, why am I not entitled to do it whilst accepting the consequences of possibly getting it wrong?
I am about to dispose of a printer/scanner that won’t scan because printer head doesn’t work. I am about to dispose of an excellent (German) cordless drill because its custom-built charger burnt out and I can’t find a new one. I am about to dispose of an angle grinder and a jigsaw because the custom-built switches cannot be found. This is all so wasteful.
What happened to the good old system whereby manufacturers provide circuit diagrams with their products?
Now if I end up blowing myself up in the process, thats my business.
Dear Andrew,
Liability is a very valid point on which we are currently working. And you are absolutely right, repair registry can be limiting to who has access to the information and the spare parts, especially if they are left in the hands of manufacturers only.
Chloé
Dear all,
Indeed it is about the ‘universal’ R2R. The R2R campaign is entering a new stage: to empower all citizens to find spare parts, schemes and other repair information (teaming up with the independent repair shops). The access to ‘open repair data’ is at the center. It will be not be easy, but the good news is that a lot of repair organisations (together with cities, universities, etc) have joined SHAREPAIR to work on shared digital support tools. The pilot ‘spare part platform’ aims at providing access to finding recycled spare parts (should be the first option, but still limited), to designs for 3D-printed spare parts (might help Andrew; involves the Fablabs!) and to ‘best buy’ commercial spare parts (possibly a link to Fixpart).
Daisy, if you feel concerned please get in touch!
Jan
Hi Jan,
Thanks for your comment! I believe you were trying to reply to people who have previously commented the post.
To do so, you should click “reply” at the bottom of their comments rather than submit a new comment that they would unfortunately not see.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Chloé
“I am about to dispose of an angle grinder and a jigsaw because the custom-built switches cannot be found”
Remove the switches and solder the wires together then add a switch in the cord. The washing machine drum example is wrong. You are talking about a dryer drum bearing.
What is needed is a website that details how easy it is to get a consumer good repaired. That way people can decide if they want to buy products from a maker with a history of making products difficult to fix.
The one thing I am dreading is that with EU regulation it often happens that it just ends up being stupid and making things a lot more expensive than they should.
No regulation should force a company to keep spare parts for many many years to come especially as lifetime of a product can vary a lot depending on what type of product it is. Phones are a good example, there are still technological advances, the 10 year smartphone marketing slogan seems demagogic and not realistic. If we forced everyone to keep EVERY phone up to date and with parts available then they would be at a minimum twice as expensive. Economic logic dictates that higher end devices should be supported longer, cheaper devices less, and parts should be at least to some part left to the market, after product is discontinued allow 3rd party companies to manufacture spare parts themselves (like with the car parts). It doesn’t make sense to have a device sold for 100 euro and support it for 5 or 10 years which would make its price like 10 times more.
For transparency maybe it would even make sense to have classes of devices, have minimum requirements, but based on the device class some would require longer support than the minimum. For instance it’s not reasonable to expect a Smasung Galaxy A20 to be supported exact same length than a Galaxy S21.
One solution could be standardization of parts somehow, where a small component can be purchased at any electrical shop because they aren’t custom made for each and every manufacturer, but a blanket rule like that could prevent innovation.
So sure goals are nice but it should always be made in a way that it is generic enough so laws don’t get obsolete because of a technological innovation, and solutions should also be economical, because it’s great to save the planet but people shouldn’t die in poverty in the meantime. It’s not the planet it’s us.
I also notice how Louis’ name is carefully avoided by repair.eu, I don’t know if there is some kind of pride or jealousy involved but I would prefer to see cooperation and some actual discussion between EU and US initiatives, like it or not, he has 1000 times the public support now through his youtube channel and the fact that he is actually a repairer so while maybe not the best diplomat, he is genuine. Occasional public cooperation I’m sure would help boost both continents’ visibility in this topic. There’s a ton of us Europeans following his channel.