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UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#81

Post by CivBase »

draklor40 wrote: post #7

Only a matter of time before they modify the Law to introduce a catch that makes it practically worthless. A - A classification system that makes defines how "easy" it is to repair something, but necessarily doesn't mean that you or I can repair it at home.It will be "easy" IF you have the right 50,000 GBP tool. B - Modify right to repair as good for the environment rule. There will be an escape clause that says that…

> A - A classification system that makes defines how "easy" it is to repair something, but necessarily doesn't mean that you or I can repair it at home.It will be "easy" IF you have the right 50,000 GBP tool.

Louis Rossmann did a video tearing apart France's recent implementation of this from the perspective of an Apple repair technician. Despite serialized parts, soldered/glued components, and no available schematics, the MacBook Pro got a pretty good repair-ability score (7/10) because it was easy to open the chassis. Meanwhile, Apple certified repair partners (repair professionals, in theory) are so handicapped by the company that they can basically only replace screens and batteries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO7vdk_X5W4

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#82

Post by simion314 »

aboringusername wrote: post #9

When everything is a commodity it's hard to see how this will be useful. When an appliance (fridge, cooker, washing machine) breaks, it's cheaper to replace. I cannot see how repairing a TV will ever be cheaper than just replacing it since they are so cheap brand new. This also applies to smartphones, none of the popular models have replaceable batteries so in the trash they go and they become worthless, even if the…

I had my fridge repaired this summer. A repair person come with his car and tools at my home, spent 2 hours to find and fix the fridge and I think it costed me less then 20% of the fridge full price. It is a real waste to throw a good fridge engine because the doors is not closing properly or a pipe is leaking some gas.

I live in Romania so this might not apply to other places so your experience is localized not global, and with an expensive enough product (like a super expensive TV or laptop) I bet most people would want it fixed and spent the money on some other gadget.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#83

Post by hehetrthrthrjn »

aminozuur wrote: post #73

If you ever wondered why electronics such as Apple products cost 30% more in European countries, it's because of regulations such as these.

Apple gear costs more in Europe because the market will bear it. It has almost nothing to do with regulations, which almost always benefits consumers at little cost. If prices are high it's usually due to a lack of competition.

Here's a couple of examples:

Free international roaming for mobile phones plans in the EU has caused the price of phone plans to move very little and mostly at the rock bottom end of the scale.

I bought the cheapest Kia Rio I could in 2016. It was bottom of the range (trim level) and yet it was decked out with ABS, electronic stability control and tire pressure monitoring. At least two of those things has saved me from a serious accident over the years. The only reason they were included was because they are mandated by the EU on all cars.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#84

Post by draklor40 »

nindalf wrote: post #78
draklor40 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to work for a small Ad-Tech firm in Germany. GDPR massively dented the business WITH NO BENEFITS to privacy. Advertisers still collect shit tons of data, your website performance is still crappy and the end result was that EU users now have to navigate MBs of Javascript popups, that try to trick me into selling data using dark patterns (blue highlight on accept all instead of Reject all). All it succeeded was in…

> 3rd world crap > Bangalore Shows how much you know if you walked into India expecting “3rd world” internet.

On the contrary this is a praise of how good Internet in India actually is.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#85

Post by draklor40 »

scrollaway wrote: post #64
draklor40 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to work for a small Ad-Tech firm in Germany. GDPR massively dented the business WITH NO BENEFITS to privacy. Advertisers still collect shit tons of data, your website performance is still crappy and the end result was that EU users now have to navigate MBs of Javascript popups, that try to trick me into selling data using dark patterns (blue highlight on accept all instead of Reject all). All it succeeded was in…

It's a shame there were no claimed benefits to privacy but adtech getting bogged down is very much an intended outcome. The shitty cookie popups and what not are a symptom of how awful the adtech industry is. The alternative to getting bogged down was probably getting outright destroyed, and i don't think EU businesses are ready for that.

Adtech did not get bogged down. It just got consolidated into fewer, more invasive hands (google, instagram, amazon, etc), that have far more data and most importantly can mine and analyze it better than the 1000s of small ad tech firms.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#86

Post by jjoonathan »

brnt wrote: post #63
draklor40 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to work for a small Ad-Tech firm in Germany. GDPR massively dented the business WITH NO BENEFITS to privacy. Advertisers still collect shit tons of data, your website performance is still crappy and the end result was that EU users now have to navigate MBs of Javascript popups, that try to trick me into selling data using dark patterns (blue highlight on accept all instead of Reject all). All it succeeded was in…

Getting bogged down by the GDPR isn't demonstrating regulatory capture, just that the policy had a real impact (which may be what people actually want, even if that means it's a hassle for business). If anything, it's a demonstration the EU, on this point, was not captured by vested interests: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/regulatory-capture.asp

The popups aren't compliant with either the intent or the letter of the law and instead pass under the legal theory of "if all of us are guilty none of us are guilty," which so far seems to be holding.

You could argue that it's not regulatory capture and instead it should be called enforcement capture or judicial capture, but absent that level of nuance I think the more accurate simplification should be "regulatory capture" rather than "real impact."

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#87

Post by fakedang »

nindalf wrote: post #78
draklor40 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to work for a small Ad-Tech firm in Germany. GDPR massively dented the business WITH NO BENEFITS to privacy. Advertisers still collect shit tons of data, your website performance is still crappy and the end result was that EU users now have to navigate MBs of Javascript popups, that try to trick me into selling data using dark patterns (blue highlight on accept all instead of Reject all). All it succeeded was in…

> 3rd world crap > Bangalore Shows how much you know if you walked into India expecting “3rd world” internet.

I read it as a praise for Indian internet.

And let's be honest. In spite of my aversion to the big telco magnates, Jio was a huge improvement over the status quo. I will agree that German internet is shit compared to Indian internet.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#88

Post by Mordisquitos »

derfitt wrote: post #31
smitty1e wrote: post #22

Whither capitalism? Why are companies not marketing along the lines of: "You can tinker with this. Our product does not treat you like the product." I'd pay a 20% premium or so not to be spied upon and enslaved. "Freedom isn't free. There's a heavy [FLOWERBED] fee."

What if it was a 200% premium?

What if it was a 0% premium, because businesses unable to adapt to new regulations without increasing their prices by 20% or 200% (!) are competed out of the market by those able to be more efficient, reduce their expenditures, or cut back their profits?

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#89

Post by abainbridge »

luxuryballs wrote: post #80
retSava wrote: post #2

Hopefully such things bring forced availability of rare spare parts. If cookie cutter capacitors break, that's nothing really since you can just order them on Mouser et al. But if a more special part breaks, say a custom voltage regulator to a game console (just since I saw a video on that fail yesterday), I would like for a repair center to be able to buy one such for a reasonable price and have the 500$ console rep…

This kind of stuff is how government “incentives” end up essentially banning devices with such fancy parts because the companies will realize complying would be taking a loss so they just stop participating.

I think the EU regs have tried to avoid that by specifying the requirements of spares availability case by case. For example, the requirements for washing machines are in C(2019) 2124, annex II. It says:

manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives of household washing machines and household washer-dryers shall make available to professional repairers at least the following spare parts, for a minimum period of ten years after placing the last unit of the model on the market:

* motor and motor brushes;

* transmission between motor and drum;

* pumps;

* shock absorbers and springs;

* washing drum, drum spider and related ball bearings (separately or bundled);

* heaters and heating elements, including heat pumps (separately or bundled);

* piping and related equipment including all hoses, valves, filters and aquastops (separately or bundled);

* printed circuit boards;

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