Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
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Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#2I don't want to get down-voted but I like this regulation, good job EU!
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#3I suspect it’s something similar to the GDPR where the EU passes a law but has very few resources on how to check if you’re actually compliant.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#4As its the EU and regulation, its time to trott out your hobby horse.
So let me trot out mine: regulation is good so long as it is backed up by even handed, robust, transparent, quick and effective sanctions.
the Online safety act is a good example of a bad law, which is enforced badly. The first big test (X producing industrial quantities of minors engaging in sexual activity) was failed. Had a small company produced a service that did they same thing, they would have been fined, servers ceased and owners thrown in jail. X got a letter saying they should stop.
An example of good enforcement is the UK's scores on the doors, where the public can see what the standard is, and if they fall below a certain level, the food place is fined/shutdown/other until it improves.
Another good example is NCAP ratings.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#5They need to start fining.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#6Why would they? The worst thing that can realistically happen is a $1-$5 billion fine a few years from now, which they only need to pay a few years after that when they have exhausted their legal remedies.
That’s easy to calculate with, and almost certainly cheaper than compliance.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#7Contrary to popular belief, the EU is not very fast when it comes to enforcement on requirements like these. We already saw this with the ePrivacy Directive and GDPR: those scary hundreds-of-millions-of-euros fines are only handed out after ongoing and deliberate violation, where you've already received plenty of warnings and smaller fines.
18% compliance after one year with zero enforcement is not great, but it's already a massive increase over the near-zero repairable products we had only a few years ago. On top of that it is 18% of models, so there's a decent chance that a huge chunk of the noncompliant ones are obscure brands with near-zero sales: a handful of models by Apple and Samsung already add up to over 60% market share. And the report was literally written by iFixit, so there's a rather clear commercial incentive to underrepresent it and push for the strongest enforcement possible.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#8I appreciate the intent to hold large corporations accountable, but I've lost faith in the EU being competent at doing so. Not as if I see anyone doing it better, but at least others aren't doing it so poorly.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#9I suspect it’s something similar to the GDPR where the EU passes a law but has very few resources on how to check if you’re actually compliant.
I think with many of the recent regulations, they could verify and find many of the egregious cases to be violating today.
The EU is just extremely worried about US tariffs and retracting support to Ukraine.
IMO they should just bite the bullet and do what they need to do. In a world of bullies those that are willing to show their teeth win. But instead we have a lot of politicians without a spine.
Re: Smartphone makers don't bother to comply with EU repairability requirements
#10I suspect it’s something similar to the GDPR where the EU passes a law but has very few resources on how to check if you’re actually compliant.
A huge part of that was fearmongering by people selling compliance consultancy services and people trying to find loopholes allowing them to keep abusing their users' data. For a lot of companies it really wasn't that big of a deal in practice.