European Parliament votes to facilitate consumer right to repair

The European Parliament on Wednesday voted to support the right of consumers to repair their own phones, tablets, laptops and other devices without going through the companies that produced them.

The resolution, a report of recommendations to facilitate the right to repair, was passed with 395 votes in favor and 94 against, with 207 abstentions. As Euronews points out, it's only an advisory report, and it's still up to the European Commission to issue actual proposals.

"By adopting this report, the European Parliament sent a clear message: harmonized 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 European 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."

Right to Repair Europe Right to Repair Europe Chloe Mikolajczak told Euronews that the move is a step in the right direction.

"Despite the political divisions, because there is a clear political division on this issue between conservatives and the progressives, we are seeing that the European Parliament is finally upholding its reputation as a defender of consumers' rights and environmental issues," she said.

Repair site iFixit notes that a recent EU survey found that 77% of EU citizens would rather repair a device than replace, and 79% thought that manufacturers should be legally obligated to facilitate the repair of devices or the replacement of parts.

Among the other provisions of the report, the motion calls for the assignment of repairability scores similar to those pioneered by iFixit. It also recommends compelling companies to provide instructions on how to repair devices, something that device makers like Apple don't do.

Apple has publicly opposed right to repair legislation in the U.S., arguing that it could threaten consumer safety and device security.

Internal communications between Apple staffers suggest that there is still debate and uncertainty surrounding right to repair policies within the company.

30 Comments

genovelle 1481 comments · 16 Years

About 3 years ago

Will the UK handle the deaths from batteries and calls from consumers who brick their devices prematurely by calling themselves repairing them. This will run quite a few companies out of business as few of them can afford to take on this additional expense in the none Apple world because they are already loosing money on these devices.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

genovelle said:

Will the UK handle the deaths from batteries and calls from consumers who brick their devices prematurely by calling themselves repairing them. This will run quite a few companies out of business as few of them can afford to take on this additional expense in the none Apple world because they are already loosing money on these devices.

Plus you will be able to kiss security goodby if, for example, Apple is forced to provide details of the security features so third party parts makers can manufacture secure enclave clones. Apple could be forced to provide third party repair shops the special software and equipment needed to calibrate Touch ID components. Once in the hands of god-knows-who we will no longer be able to be assured our repaired iPhones are still secure and armored against hacking. This is Pandora’s Box being opened.

gc_uk 110 comments · 6 Years

lkrupp said:

Plus you will be able to kiss security goodby if, for example, Apple is forced to provide details of the security features so third party parts makers can manufacture secure enclave clones. Apple could be forced to provide third party repair shops the special software and equipment needed to calibrate Touch ID components. Once in the hands of god-knows-who we will no longer be able to be assured our repaired iPhones are still secure and armored against hacking. This is Pandora’s Box being opened.

You should read the article. The proposal is only for a labelling scheme to indicate to consumers expected lifetime and how repairable a device is. Considering the majority of people favour repairing a device rather than buying a new one this is a good thing in line with consumer wants.

killroy 283 comments · 17 Years

genovelle said:

Will the UK handle the deaths from batteries and calls from consumers who brick their devices prematurely by calling themselves repairing them. This will run quite a few companies out of business as few of them can afford to take on this additional expense in the none Apple world because they are already loosing money on these devices.

Don't forget the tools you will have to buy to do the fix.

seanj 322 comments · 16 Years

genovelle said:

Will the UK handle the deaths from batteries and calls from consumers who brick their devices prematurely by calling themselves repairing them. This will run quite a few companies out of business as few of them can afford to take on this additional expense in the none Apple world because they are already loosing money on these devices.

In case you hadn’t noticed or been living in a cave, the U.K. left the EU at the end of January 2020, so the European Parliament can do whatever it likes, it will have no impact in the U.K.