This is an important step which has just been taken in Brussels. The European Parliament has adopted an ambitious position regarding the repair of electrical and electronic objects.
The right to repair is celebrating a great victory today. New rules adopted by MEPs on November 21 could well make repairing our smartphones, televisions and household appliances easier. In Strasbourg, parliament voted in favor of stricter regulation of the price of spare parts and the repair process for our devices. The “serialization” process, dear to Apple among others, could become illegal on the old continent.
Limit overconsumption
Concretely, the Parliament’s proposal seeks to “ facilitate the repair of defective products, reducing waste and supporting the repair sector “. To this end, the text provides for numerous restrictive measures as well as new rights for citizens of the European Union.
If the text is adopted, manufacturers of electrical and electronic devices must, during the legal warranty period, “ give priority to repair if the cost is less than or equal to replacing the item “. Enough to limit the frantic renewal of certain gadgets. Parliament is also proposing to extend the legal warranty period by one year, from 24 to 36 months. Out-of-warranty repairs could also be made easier and the loan of a replacement product during the repair period would be made more accessible. And if repair is impossible, “ a refurbished product could be offered instead », Specify the deputies.
Spare parts, the sinews of war
Concerning the repair process itself, the text provides that “ independent repairers, renovators and end users » have access to spare parts, device repair manuals and tools necessary for the operation “ at a reasonable cost “. In the subtext, we can see Parliament’s desire to regulate the price of parts to avoid the grotesque situation of having to buy a product again, because it is cheaper than having it repaired.
The position defended by Parliament could also put an end to the “serialization” process which consists of software linking certain components to the serial number of a device, making their replacement complicated and impossible. This practice is notably used by Apple on its iPhones and is currently the subject of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The text must still pass through the hands of the Council of the European Union and resist trilogue negotiations, but the position adopted by the parliament is encouraging. The repair specialist iFixit even describes it as “ most ambitious proposal to date on the right to repair “. We will have to wait at least a year before possibly seeing the results of such a text, but it could well be that repairing our smartphones will soon be simpler.
Source : European Parliament, iFixit
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