Breaking your washing machine or coffee maker should no longer mean the need to buy a new appliance in the EU. The European Parliament and the Council (the States) have reached a provisional agreement, still to be ratified by both parties, on the “right to repair”, a regulation that will facilitate the repair of broken or defective appliances to promote a more circular economy. ecological and, at the same time, allow significant savings.
With this agreement, “Europe is clearly committed to repairing instead of throwing away,” celebrated the Belgian Secretary of State for Budget and Consumer Protection, Alexia Bertrand, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council this semester. For the European Parliament's chief negotiator of the norm, the German social democrat René Repasi, with the pact reached during the night from Thursday to Friday, “it will be easier and cheaper to repair products than to buy expensive ones again.” Bertrand added: “It will create good quality jobs, reduce waste, limit our dependence on critical foreign materials and protect our environment.”
The Council emphasizes that the provisional agreement maintains the consumer's right to choose between repair and replacement when a product is broken or defective and is still under warranty. But it prioritizes the first, for which it provides a series of incentives so that consumers are encouraged to prolong the life of their devices. In the case of repairable devices, even if the warranty has already expired, the customer will be entitled to a cheaper repair. A possibility that not only reduces waste, but also “boosts the repair sector and promotes more sustainable business models,” the negotiators congratulate themselves.
When it presented the proposal last year, the Commission highlighted that, each year, 35 million tonnes of devices that could be repaired are thrown away in the EU alone. Something that has serious environmental consequences: this waste creates up to 261 million tons of “unnecessary” greenhouse gases per year. The waste is also economic: according to Brussels, consumers lose up to 12 billion euros each year by buying new appliances instead of repairing broken ones.
“Our current consumption model is, simply, unsustainable,” MEP Repasi underlines in this regard. “With the new law, we will force Member States to introduce financial incentives for citizens to choose to repair first, which will consequently lead to savings in greenhouse gas emissions, resources and waste,” he added.
The directive provides for the possibility that consumers can claim from producers the repair of products that are technically repairable under EU standards, such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators or mobile phones. And the possibility opens up that, in the future, the Commission will add new products to the initial list.
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The manufacturer must inform on its website about spare parts and ensure that they are available at a “reasonable price.” The directive also prohibits practices that “prevent the use of second-hand or 3D printed spare parts by independent repair points.”
In addition, the manufacturer must carry out the necessary repairs in a “reasonable time” and, unless this service is free, also at a “reasonable price.” If the consumer chooses to have the product repaired instead of replaced, its warranty will be extended for at least 12 more months from the moment the product is repaired, a period of time that States can extend if they wish.
The agreement also includes the creation of a “European information form” that will be free and in which repairers provide clear information on repair conditions, completion time of their work, prices or replacement products. Finally, the pact also provides for the creation of a “European online repair platform” that informs consumers in the 27 States about the repair services that exist both at European level and in each country and transnationally.
The directive seeks to harmonize at the European level different measures already adopted in some countries. In France, for example, the so-called “repairability index” came into force in 2021, a label that must be placed near the price of the device and that, with a score from 0 to 10, qualifies whether the product is “repairable.” “hardly repairable” or, directly, “irreparable”. That same year, in Spain, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs explained that it was also working on the creation of a repairability index, a classification of household appliances and electronic devices according to different variables, such as the availability of replacement parts or the ease of disassembly. However, the legislature was exhausted and the then minister, Alberto Garzón, was unable to approve it. The new Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, has expressed his intention to return to the issue, although there is currently no date for its implementation, reports Miguel Angel Medina.
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