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Europe Wants a 'Right to Repair' Smartphones and Gadgets
The European Union is seeking to help consumers fix or upgrade devices, rather than replace them, as part of a 30-year push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
LONDON — Hoping to replace that two-year-old smartphone in a few months? The European Union wants you to think twice about doing that.
The bloc announced an ambitious plan on Wednesday that would require manufacturers of electronic products, from smartphones to tumble driers, to offer more repairs, upgrades and ways to reuse existing goods, instead of encouraging consumers to buy new ones.
[ . . . ] "The linear growth model of 'take-make-use-discard' has reached its limits," Virginijus Sinkevicius, the union's environment commissioner, told reporters in Brussels as he presented the "Circular Economy Action Plan," which includes the "right to repair" initiative.
"We want to make sure that products placed on E.U. market are designed to last longer, to be easier to repair and upgrade, easier to recycle and easier to reuse," he added.
Hopefully this would put an end to the waste and cost associat... Look! Over there! A new Shiny!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 14 2020, @10:45AM
Exactly the sort of thing this is meant so solve. Providing means by which service shops can change battery in a phone or laptop without breaking the warranty. Imagine if you were only allowed to change oil at the dealer or you lose car warranty.
Remember when you had 10 devices and 10 fucking chargers and cables for it? Yeah, same type of EU directive that fixed that shit. And also allowed standards to develop, like Quick Charge and IQ charger. Things that would probably not exist if every company was making their own proprietary charger.