Right-to-repair has gotten a formal boost in the European Union. The Council of the European Union adopted a right-to-repair directive that will impose new obligations on manufactures across industries, with the aim of encouraging consumers to choose to repair products as opposed to buying new ones. The Council greenlit the legislation – which is slated to make repair services “more accessible, transparent, and attractive” in order to significantly reduce waste in the EU – on May 30, confirming that their approval is “the last step in the legislative decision-making process” for the bill.
As part of the EU’s “Green Deal” tranche of legislative efforts aimed at achieving climate neutrality across the 27-member bloc by 2050, the new right-to-repair directive requires manufacturers to offer repair services, even after legal warranty period has expired. Additionally, if repairs are already offered by companies in accordance with the terms of their product warranties, consumers will now benefit from an extended warranty period of one additional year.
Additionally, the directive “creates a set of tools and incentives to make repair more attractive for consumers.” Dentons’ Ewa Rutkowska-Subocz stated in a recent note that these include …
> A right for consumers to request that manufacturers repair products that are technically repairable under EU law, including household goods, such as washing machines and TVs. This will ensure that consumers always have someone to turn to when they opt to repair their products, as well as to encourage producers to develop more sustainable business models;
> A producer’s obligation to inform consumers about which products they must repair themselves;
> An online matchmaking repair platform to connect consumers with repairers and sellers of refurbished goods in their area. The platform will enable searches by location and quality standards, helping consumers find attractive offers and boosting visibility for repairers;
> A European Repair Information Form, which consumers will be able to request from any repairer, bringing transparency to the conditions for repair and the cost as well as making it easier for consumers to compare repair offers; and
> A European quality standard for repair services will be developed to help consumers identify repairers who commit to a higher quality. This “easy repair” standard will be open to all repairers across the EU willing to commit to minimum quality standards, for example, based on duration, or availability of products.
The directive is slated to enter into force at the end of this month, and member states will then have 24 months to transpose it into national law.
Speaking about the new legislation, Belgian State Secretary for the Budget and Consumer Protection Alexia Bertrand, said, “The directive enshrines a new right for consumers: the right to have defective products repaired in an easier, cheaper and faster way. It also gives manufacturers the incentive to make products that last longer and can be repaired, reused, and recycled, and finally, it makes repairing a more attractive economic activity that can create Europe-based quality jobs.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: The regulatory tides are undoubtedly turning when it comes to the right-to-repair. In addition to the new directive in the EU, various states in the U.S. are readily adopting legislation that endeavors to make it easier for consumers to repair devices or to take them to independent repair shops. The Right to Repair Act, for instance, which was signed into law in California in October 2023, joins state legislation in Colorado, Minnesota, and New York, which all passed right-to-repair laws in 2022. Meanwhile, New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act requires original equipment manufacturers to make tools, parts, and diagnostic and repair information available to owners of digital electronic equipment, as well as to independent repair providers.
Consumer demand is also rising, with public support growing across the country (and beyond) for right-to-repair laws that require companies to provide them with the same spare parts and repair manuals for products that have long been made available to authorized repair firms.
Against this background (and maybe most pressingly, in light of the need to comply with a growing number of states’ right-to-repair laws), companies appear to be waking up to the need to reevaluate their stances on repairs and the lifecycle of their products more broadly. As Los Angeles Times columnist Brian Merchant wrote this past summer, traditional right-to-repair opponents, such as Apple and other tech titans, “can see which way the wind is blowing.” The iPhone-maker – which initially opposed the California right-to-repair bill, for example, but subsequently changed its tune – may “know that consumers are not as keen to buy a new phone every year or two, and that the repair business is growing – and may seek to consolidate its control over the market segment,” Merchant asserted.
He noted that “having watched this trend coming for years now, Apple has been building an industry lead on repairable devices, [and] by announcing its support of the right to repair, Apple gets to look like the good guy and perhaps get a jump on the competition, too.”
As for the impact that rising right-to-repair – and extended producer responsibility policies and regulations – and the corresponding extension of products’ lifespans will have the on the market for new products, Infosys claims that it will lower revenue from the sales of new goods.” However, this overarching movement may also serve as an opportunity for companies, including those in the luxury realm, to generate new revenue by way of “post-sale services, spare parts sales, upgrades, retrofits, exchanges, and end-of-life material management [that] could offset the impact in the long run.”
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