The EU is bringing in a new law that should help make fixing household appliances easier. From 2021, companies will have to make appliances longer-lasting, and they will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
However, under the new EU law, only professional repairers will be able to buy spare parts. Campaigners are calling for the parts to be made available to everybody so consumers can fix their own machines, but manufacturers say this would raise questions about risk and liability.
If British companies want to sell into Europe after Brexit they will have to follow the new rules, which apply from April 2021. The law also includes provisions to make appliances more energy efficient.
Assuming the member states agree to the new rules, they could bring about a fundamental change in the way our most popular machines and gadgets are designed and manufactured – using screws instead of glue to attach parts, for example, so they can be dismantled without being forced apart. They should also (in Europe at least) end ‘premature obsolescence’, where companies make products with a short lifespan in order to encourage consumers to replace them with updated models more frequently – in 2018, Apple and Samsung were fined for issuing software updates to their phones that slowed down their performance as part of a push to make existing customers buy their latest models.
In the US, meanwhile, around 20 states are said to have right to repair legislation in progress.
further reading…
The EU is bringing in a new law that should help make fixing household appliances easier. From 2021, companies will have to make appliances longer-lasting, and they will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
However, under the new EU law, only professional repairers will be able to buy spare parts. Campaigners are calling for the parts to be made available to everybody so consumers can fix their own machines, but manufacturers say this would raise questions about risk and liability.
If British companies want to sell into Europe after Brexit they will have to follow the new rules, which apply from April 2021. The law also includes provisions to make appliances more energy efficient.
Assuming the member states agree to the new rules, they could bring about a fundamental change in the way our most popular machines and gadgets are designed and manufactured – using screws instead of glue to attach parts, for example, so they can be dismantled without being forced apart. They should also (in Europe at least) end ‘premature obsolescence’, where companies make products with a short lifespan in order to encourage consumers to replace them with updated models more frequently – in 2018, Apple and Samsung were fined for issuing software updates to their phones that slowed down their performance as part of a push to make existing customers buy their latest models.
In the US, meanwhile, around 20 states are said to have right to repair legislation in progress.