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EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

consilium.europa.eu

11–20 of 120 posts

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#11
post #4

Why is there gatekeeping of "professional" repairers and "repair services"? Why can't I as a consumer view a service manual and buy a part? If a washing machine costs £220, and a professional repair man costs £70 per hour, nobody will repair out of warranty.

Because it is these professional repairers lobbying for the laws. This sort of thing always aims to get the law to identify some kind of professional certification needed to qualify, and then that certification gets more expensive and limited (eg. by saying studying a specific course is needed, but only X thousand places are offered per year). Eventually, people who have done that course and qualification get so expe…

It'd be quite ironic if a "right to repair" would have provisions designed to prevent people from repairing their own electronics, because a business interest lobbied for that.

(Contemplate an "open-source" license where the source is provided upon request, to government-licensed software professionals, and otherwise unavailable. We'd be living in this world if history went only very slightly differently. You can't invent that (FOSS) kind of radical sociology after the regulators catch up to you—let alone expect regulators to invent it for you).

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#12
post #4

Why is there gatekeeping of "professional" repairers and "repair services"? Why can't I as a consumer view a service manual and buy a part? If a washing machine costs £220, and a professional repair man costs £70 per hour, nobody will repair out of warranty.

There are websites that sell many parts for many appliances (espares.co.uk in the UK, for instance, and they also have many user manuals). I already replaced the handle of an old fridge and the seal of a washing machine that way. Even replaced the toner driver of a laser printer once.

The reality is that this "right to repair" is nothing but political fluff and brings very little or might even make appliances more expensive for consumers.

> If a washing machine costs £220, and a professional repair man costs £70 per hour, nobody will repair out of warranty.

Exactly and there is nothing that can be done about that. Most people aren't going to take their washing machine, or what not, apart by themselves even if parts and manuals are available, which they already are. Hence my previous point.

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#13

Holy shit anyone else notice the "accept cookies" options on this page, where "Accept" is a tiny checkmark and "Reject" is a large text button?

I get two equally sized buttons on desktop, "I accept cookies" and "I refuse cookies". But it's an official EU page after all, would a be pretty bad show if they had one of those dark-pattern cookie banners where "Accept" is a single click but refusing requires to go through pages and pages of checkboxes ;)

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#14
I think monopoly laws should be used to combat this problem instead.

"Repair of apple devices" is a market with many participants, including apple itself. If Apple uses its power in the "design and manufacture of apple devices" market to unfairly influence its position in the "repair of apple products" market, then that should be illegal and they should be fined for it.

An example would be software locking serial numbers of parts together and requiring a special in-house-only piece of software to replace parts.

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is these professional repairers lobbying for the laws. This sort of thing always aims to get the law to identify some kind of professional certification needed to qualify, and then that certification gets more expensive and limited (eg. by saying studying a specific course is needed, but only X thousand places are offered per year). Eventually, people who have done that course and qualification get so expe…

Professional repairs are the ones lobbying for right to repair laws? Do you have proof for this outlandish claim?

The most vocal person behind the right to repair movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npd_xDuNi9k

Oh, and he runs a professional repair shop...

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is these professional repairers lobbying for the laws. This sort of thing always aims to get the law to identify some kind of professional certification needed to qualify, and then that certification gets more expensive and limited (eg. by saying studying a specific course is needed, but only X thousand places are offered per year). Eventually, people who have done that course and qualification get so expe…

Professional repairs are the ones lobbying for right to repair laws? Do you have proof for this outlandish claim?

Luis Rossmann is a professional repair shop owner is known to lobby right to repair laws.

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#18

Does this bill includes an obligation for manufacturers to sell spare parts at a reasonable price ? Or has clauses against malicious compliance like apple did with the infamous military crates ?

Could you elaborate on / link to an article regarding the apple military crates?

I tried a few web searches but couldn't find what you're referring to.

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#19
post #4

Why is there gatekeeping of "professional" repairers and "repair services"? Why can't I as a consumer view a service manual and buy a part? If a washing machine costs £220, and a professional repair man costs £70 per hour, nobody will repair out of warranty.

Luckily we have https://elektrotanya.com. All it takes is a little civil disobedience and a few professional repair man to make all those manuals available to everyone in true hacker spirit.

Re: EU countries must implement right to repair laws within two years

#20

Does this bill includes an obligation for manufacturers to sell spare parts at a reasonable price ? Or has clauses against malicious compliance like apple did with the infamous military crates ?

Could you elaborate on / link to an article regarding the apple military crates? I tried a few web searches but couldn't find what you're referring to.

Article from 2022, I remember seeing a video on youtube about this too. https://repair.eu/news/apples-self-repair-programme-is-not-t...
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