Dthem one step forward, two steps back… The French repairability index has laid promising milestones since 2021 for the establishment of a more structured framework for smartphone manufacturers in order to encourage them to produce more durable and repairable phones.
But the second stage of this roadmap, which crystallized in the form of a sustainability index, was rejected for smartphones by the European Commission on November 6, under the pretext of a conflict with the future energy label on smartphones. smartphones which will integrate a European repairability index and information on reliability, and which will be mandatory, but only from June 2025.
While the numerous discussions around the right to repairability, eco-design and sustainability seemed to be a priority, it is clear that progress is rare.
This refusal indeed constitutes a victory for industry players who support the status quo, notably the largest smartphone manufacturers and their federation, the French Alliance of Digital Industries (Afnum), and a defeat for players advocating a more responsible electronics such as Commown, Fairphone, HOP (Stop planned obsolescence) or GreenIT, as well as for consumers who expected more robust and easily repairable products.
The lowest priced texts
If it is never easy to find a collegial agreement around definitions such as sustainability – which calls for the establishment of numerous measurement criteria – we note that these are, even today, the least texts -sayers and the least ambitious who win the favor of the European institutions. Certainly the European energy label covers interesting elements – such as the energy label which will indicate on a scale from A to E, to what extent smartphones and tablets can be easily repaired.
But this label also and above all excludes fundamental points.
We therefore regret that the necessary valuation of long-term support for software with an eye toward the eight-year mark has completely disappeared, while the vast majority of manufacturers do not yet even offer support going beyond five years. after the last unit sold.
Forgotten, in addition, the question of freedom of choice for consumers of the operating system of their device or even the modularity of products to make them more repairable (courtesy of lobbies advocating the idea that sustainability goes hand in hand with robustness and therefore monolithic block – glued – of the devices).
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