In a landmark move, the European Parliament voted today to support consumers’ Right to Repair. The resolution was adopted with 395 in favour and just 94 against, with 207 abstentions.
“By adopting this report, the European Parliament sent a clear message: harmonised mandatory labelling indicating durability and tackling premature obsolescence at EU level are the way forward,” said Rapporteur David Cormand, MEP from France.
The vote calls for the EU Commission to “develop and introduce mandatory labelling, to provide clear, immediately visible and easy-to-understand information to consumers on the estimated lifetime and reparability of a product at the time of purchase.”
Ugo Vallauri, Co-Founder of the Restart Project, a founding member of the European Right to Repair Campaign, was jubilant. “We hope this will translate into swift action to bring a mandatory repairability score index for all electricals and electronic products sold across the EU, to help consumers to shop with confidence.”
In January, France is rolling out repairability ratings for smartphones, laptops, and other products. Austria is also reducing taxes on repair services and providing subsidies for consumer repairs.
The EU motion calls for a repair score, similar to the scores that iFixit has been assigning to gadgets for the past fifteen years. According to a recent EU survey, 77% of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them; 79% think that manufacturers should be legally obliged to facilitate the repair of digital devices or the replacement of their individual parts.
Matthias Huisken, Director of Advocacy for iFixit Europe, said “This is a huge win for consumers across Europe. This vote will set in motion a wave of new repair-friendly policies, from repair scores at retail to product longevity disclosures.”
“This vote shows that right to repair measures are backed by opinion polls but also by the European Parliament. The European Commission now needs to take this momentum and move forward swiftly in 2021 on a EU-wide repairability score for all electronic devices and repairability rules for computers” said Chloé Mikolajczak, EU campaigner for the Right to Repair.
5 Commenti
Excellent news.
We just need to get the UK Government to do the same now.
Do you have any info on that?
thanks,
David.
Crispy - Replica
This isn’t Right To Repair, this is product labeling. That’s a huge difference.
li sts - Replica
This now establish that NO schematic will be passed along chips. This law is anti consumer. Check details and there no change will be ;/ We need to force them to share more than less. You get 6-7 point and is better because you don’t need provide any chip, just motherboard replace or battery. Ridiculous law
Patryk Padus - Replica
Not just ifixit, i am thinking about if we can recoat millions of non-stick frypans and pots for household reuse instead of sending them to landfill, i am trying to setup a trial workshop, love to hear anyone with more idea or information to share, thanks. "irecoatit"
cfj yau - Replica
Great idea cfj yau! I am fed up of my new non-stick cooking pots losing their non-stick surfaces within a few months of purchase. Some food stuffs begin to react with the rubbed out surfaces, especially tomato sauce and curry sauce, and one cannot get rid of the smell that lingers on the inside of the cooking pot. Most unhygienic. Also these scraped stained surfaces lead to unhealthy, fungal spots on the cooking pots. The manufacturers must make the non-stick coating more hardwearing and durable, and definitely dishwasher safe. Perhaps local shops might be willing to provide a very low-cost resurfacing servce for old cooking pots? That would be convenient, practical and less wasteful. Shobha, 11.10.2022, UK
Shobha Sud-Banerji - Replica